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The son of liberal billionaire financier George Soros donated $650,000 to Democratic campaigns and committees last year, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Alexander Soros, Soros’s son and managing partner of Soros Brothers Investments, has quietly stepped up as a major liberal donor but has remained relatively obscure due to his father garnering much of the media attention in the family.

Alex’s generous contributions spanned across a number of liberal party committees and campaigns, including two donations totaling $203,400 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) recount and building funds, while providing an additional $33,900 to the committee during the primary period…

On Thursday, Minneapolis station WCCO reported on guns and crime in Minnesota. Anchor Frank Vascarello’s introduction: “More people are carrying guns than ever before, but the crime rate remains low.” Imagine that.

Reporter Pat Kessler also treated more guns and less crime as paradoxical. Reporting on crime and guns has been infested with the “Fox Butterfield effect.” It is named after a New York Times reporter, who in November 2004 was surprised that:

The number of inmates in state and federal prisons rose 2.1 percent last year, even as violent crime and property crime fell.

Later, a puzzled Butterfield referred to “the paradox of a falling crime rate but a rising prison population.” Butterfield never considered the idea that fewer bad guys on the streets might lead to less crime.

The Butterfield effect as it applies to guns is the idea journalists are similarly reluctant to accept that armed citizens can better protect themselves and others…

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Teachers and public employees all throughout West Virginia will stage a walkout Thursday and Friday to protest inaction to solve issues related to pay raises and healthcare costs. Union leaders made the announcement Saturday during a rally at the state Capitol where thousands of people reportedly gathered in the rain.

“The entire state of West Virginia will be shut down,” said Dale Lee, president of West Virginia Education Association, according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail. “We are standing united – all 55 [counties]. Will you stand with us?”

The demonstration Saturday was preceded by teachers and service personnel from seven counties participating in a walkout and storming into the West Virginia State Capitol building on Friday…

Federal deportation officers staged one of the biggest enforcement actions in years against businesses in Los Angeles this week, arresting 212 people and serving audit notices to 122 businesses who will have to prove they aren’t hiring illegal immigrants.

Nearly all of those arrested were convicted criminals, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE said it targeted Los Angeles because it’s a sanctuary city, meaning it refuses to fully cooperate with federal authorities on deportations from within its jails.

That means agents and officers have to go out into the community, said Thomas D. Homan, the agency’s deputy director.

“Fewer jail arrests mean more arrests on the street, and that also requires more resources, which is why we are forced to send additional resources to those areas to meet operational needs and officer safety,” Mr. Homan said…

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Captain Kirk is getting into the country music business. William Shatner signed with Heartland Records Nashville and “is currently working on a very special project that will be released later this year,” according to a press release.

Few details are known about the 86-year-old “Star Trek” actor’s new venture, but Heartland Records promised more details “will be released soon.”

This isn’t the first musical project to come from the actor. He has released eight previous albums, most recently 2013’s “Ponder the Mystery.”

Shatner also has a close relationship with country music star Brad Paisley and has made cameos in several of his music videos, including “Celebrity” and “Online.”…

Doctors in a north Georgia emergency room were forced to call police after one of their patients became unstable, combative – and naked more than once. According to a report filed by the Ellijay Police Department, officers were called to Piedmont Mountainside Hospital in the late night hours of Feb. 3.

Officers arrived speaking with District Attorney Office Investigator Greg Arp who was working off-duty detail at the hospital. There, they learned the initial details of what would become an odd night in the emergency room.

In room six was Roy Leon Davenport, an extremely intoxicated man who had been brought to them by ambulance. Officers walked in and found Davenport naked, bloody and cursing loudly at the off-duty investigator.

Apparently, some of that blood was from when he hit himself in the head with a beer bottle. What blood wasn’t running down his face was apparently in his mouth…

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The Dow posted its best weekly gain since the 2016 presidential election, a rebound that follows its biggest downturn in two years and signals that recent investor jitters over inflation have eased.

This past week’s gain of 4.3% for the Dow Jones industrial average comes after a volatile period during which the popular stock gauge suffered its first correction, or 10% drop, since February 2016. The Dow has now recouped about half of its losses suffered in the recent sell-off.

After weeks of worry on Wall Street that signs of rising inflation and a move higher in borrowing costs could impede the stock market’s rise, investment pros now believe a gradual rise in consumer prices and worker wages are not enough to offset the benefits of robust economic growth and improving corporate earnings…

Animal rights activists are up in arms over attempts to barbecue a dog at an immigrant welcome center in southern Italy, with migrants insisting the practice is normal where they come from.

Members of the Carabinieri, an Italian military police force, intervened immediately after receiving a call from an employee of the center who had witnessed the scene of a 29-year-old Nigerian man intent on roasting a dog at the center in Vibo Valentia, in the Italian region of Calabria.

The man had succeeded in skinning and chopping up the canine and was in the process of grilling it for himself and some friends when he was stopped by law enforcement officers. The young woman who called the police also volunteers at a pro-animal organization in the area.

Explaining to police that such a practice is “normal where we come from,” the migrant insisted that he didn’t kill the dog but had found it dead by the side of the road and had decided to grill it. He also pleaded ignorance of Italian laws forbidding eating cats and dogs…

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The left is a broken record when it comes to Islam. No matter how violent the action that is done in its name or by its people, the response is always the same: Islam is a peaceful religion. A report out Malaysia is just one more example that goes against this narrative.

Port Dickson army sergeant Mohammad Abdullah Mohamed was charged for culpable homicide in the death of his daughter Nur Aina Nabihah Mohammad Abdullah, at their residence on Jan. 31, the Malaysia Gazette reported.

Mohamed was said to have nodded in court when he heard the charges against him. The Gazette reported that no plea had been recorded.

Twin brothers in New York City were charged on Thursday after law enforcement officials executed a search warrant at their apartment and found dozens of pounds of bomb-making materials and disturbing notes.

Christian Toro, who was a teacher up until December, and his brother, Tyler Toro, both face federal bomb-making counts; Christian Toro also faces a charge of distributing explosive materials to a minor, NBC New York reported.

Christian Toro was arrested in January on rape charges stemming from an alleged inappropriate relationship he was having with a female student where he taught in Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood.

Christian Toro resigned his job from the school in December after the student called in a threat. NBC New York notes: After he (Christian Toro) resigned, Tyler Toro returned Christian Toro’s school-issued laptop to the school…

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Before Nikolas Cruz carried out his mass killing at a Florida high school this week, police responded to his home 39 times over a seven-year period, according to disturbing new documents.

Details about the calls to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office – obtained from police records by CNN – were not immediately available and it was impossible to determine if all involved Cruz.

But the nature of the emergencies at his Parkland home included “mentally ill person,” “child/elderly abuse,” “domestic disturbance” and “missing person,” KTLA reported. And a schoolmate, Brody Speno, told the network that cops were called to Cruz’s home “almost every other week.”…

According to AdWeek, CNN “was – 30 percent in total prime time viewers, and – 23 percent in total day viewers from last year” for the week of February 5-11.

CNN did not even crack the top 10 for primetime viewers on cable, while its competitors’, MSNBC and Fox News, were number two and number one, respectively.

The network’s commentators and guests have often been critical of President Trump. On air, he has been compared to a communist or fascist dictator and someone with Alzheimer’s.

Recently, a CNN reporter went to Iowa to talk to Trump voters, many of whom dismantled the network’s Russia coverage, calling the Russia investigation a “political witch hunt from the get-go” and a “disgrace.”

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The flu shot is 36 percent effective in adults this winter, while getting young children vaccinated for the flu can make them 59 percent less likely to become infected and have to go to the doctor, federal health officials said Thursday.

The number of children who died from the flu climbed to 63 this past week, and additional deaths are expected to be announced soon. Three out of four children who died had not been vaccinated.

“We continue to recommend parents get their children vaccinated even though it’s fairly late in the season,” said Anne Schuchat, acting director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The latest estimates come as officials say that this flu season has hosted certain virus strains that tend to cause more illness than others.

What we saw at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., is no less shocking and horrific than every school shooting we’ve seen since Columbine in 1999. Seventeen people were killed at the hands of 19-year-old shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz, who was expelled from the school and banned from returning to campus.

It’s the type of shooting that makes you sick to your stomach.

You want to get all the facts and gather all the information that you can to ensure that a tragedy such as this never happens again. However, the media has been trying to convince you that these types of shootings where there are mass casualties are happening every day.

It all began on Wednesday when reporting on the developments at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, MSNBC host Brian Williams said that this was the 12th school shooting of 2018. Ever since then, the talking point was corrected in that there were actually 18 school shootings in 45 days…

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A left-wing referendum from Gov. Jerry Brown may result in California prisons allowing more than 10,000 sex offenders to get back onto the streets.

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Allen Sumner is being forced to adhere to Proposition 57, an arbitrary measure from Brown that orders all California prisons to consider early parole for non-violent offenders.

Brown’s measure also allows for those convicted of incest, child pornography, of using minors in sex practices will be eligible for early release. Brown initially promised voters he would not allow non-violent sex offenders to get early parole, but his measure could result in tens of thousands of sex offenders getting out of jail early across the entire state…

Bruce Ohr, the Department of Justice official who brought opposition research on President Donald Trump to the FBI, did not disclose that Fusion GPS, which performed that research at the Democratic National Committee’s behest, was paying his wife, and did not obtain a conflict of interest waiver from his superiors at the Justice Department, documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation show.

The omission may explain why Ohr was demoted from his post as associate deputy attorney general after the relationship between Fusion GPS and his wife emerged and Fusion founder Glenn Simpson acknowledged meeting with Ohr. Willfully falsifying government ethics forms can carry a penalty of jail time, if convicted.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) hired Fusion GPS to gather and disseminate damning info about Trump, and they in turn paid Nellie Ohr, a former CIA employee with expertise in Russia, for an unknown role related to the “dossier.”…

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Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old orphan with a troubled past, a fascination with weapons and resistance groups, and an AR-15 rifle, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder Thursday morning after being questioned for hours by state and federal authorities following the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. in five years.

Fourteen wounded survivors were hospitalized as bodies were recovered from inside and around Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the AP reports.

Nikolas Cruz, still wearing a hospital gown after being treated for labored breathing, and weighing in at 5-foot-7 and 131 pounds, was ordered held without bond and booked into jail.

Cruz’s former classmates thought they were having another drill Wednesday afternoon when a fire alarm sounded…

The Treasury Department plans to eliminate nearly 300 outdated tax regulations, getting tax rules off the books that in some cases have not applied since the 1940s.

The department announced its proposal to eliminate unnecessary tax regulations this week, in compliance with two executive orders signed by President Donald Trump last year to reduce regulatory burdens and simplify the tax code.

“We continue our work to ensure that our tax regulatory system promotes economic growth,” said Secretary Steven Mnuchin. “These 298 regulations serve no useful purpose to taxpayers and we have proposed eliminating them.”

“I look forward to continuing to build on our efforts to make the regulatory system more efficient and effective,” he said.

Executive Order 13789, signed last April, instructs the Treasury to “bring clarity” to the tax code and identify all tax regulations that “impose an undue financial burden on United States taxpayers,”…

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Stocks ended with sharp gains on Wednesday, Feb. 14, after slumping earlier in the session following a reading on U.S. consumer inflation that came in higher than forecasts. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 253 points, or 1.03%. The S&P 500 rose 1.34% and the Nasdaq was up 1.86% as technology shares outperformed.

The $18.477 billion in tax revenues the federal government collected on Monday, according to the Daily Treasury Statement, is more than enough to cover the $18 billion that President Donald Trump is requesting in his new budget proposal for building a wall along the U.S-Mexico border.

“As the President has said, a nation without borders is not a nation at all,” Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said in written testimony presented to the Senate Budget Committee on Tuesday.

“The budget reflects the president’s commitment to fully securing the border by providing $18 billion to fund construction of the border wall,” Mulvaney’s said. “With the Bipartisan Budget Act now the law, the administration is seeking to fully fund the border wall in FY 2018 and FY 2019.”

The Daily Treasury Statement, which is published the following afternoon for each day the federal government is open for business, summarizes the receipts and expenditures the government took in and sent out on the day it covers…

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On Wednesday, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sent some presidential smoke signals with a surprise appearance at the National Congress of American Indians. There, she attempted to rebut the accusations that she fabricated Native American heritage for personal gain – she still claims she has Cherokee ancestry, without a shred of evidence to support the contention, and she likely used that fake ancestry to win a post at Harvard Law School.

In the past, she’s defended her supposed ancestry by pointing to her “high cheekbones” and her recipe submission in Pow Wow Chow. Yes, really. So, before the NCAI, Warren decided to play victim. As usual.

This time, she suggested that President Trump’s playful label, “Pocahontas” – which is actually a botched version of the original joke about Warren, Fauxcahontas – was racism…

Main Street continues to flourish under the Trump administration. The National Federation of Independent Business reports that optimism is at a 45-year high among America’s small businesses. The “Small Business Optimism Index” – a monthly gauge of sentiment among the owners – has broken the record for the measurement, established 45 years ago.

“Main Street is roaring,” said Juanita Duggan, president and CEO of the group, which represents 325,000 small business concerns in all 50 states. “Small business owners are not only reporting better profits, but they’re also ready to grow and expand. The record level of enthusiasm for expansion follows a year of record-breaking optimism.”

Among the findings: 41 percent of the members reported they expect the economy to improve, a third say it’s an ideal time to expand; another third report an increase in job openings; while 31 percent reported “higher worker compensation” for their employees.

“The historically high index readings over the last year tell us small business owners have never been more positive about the economy…

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In the land of the free, government and law enforcement not only wage war on the poor and homeless through various unscrupulous means designed to extract revenue and attack the right to exist but those who try to help the homeless – by feeding, clothing, or sheltering them – also face the wrath of the state.

As the following case illustrates, even those who’ve laid down their lives for the state – veterans – and the ones who help them are now being targeted.

Judy Wu, a landlord in San Francisco has converted 12 properties she owns into 49 housing units over the last decade which she and her husband, Trent Zhu, rent to homeless, low-income and disabled veterans…

The Star Spangled Banner will no longer be played at rallies at California High School in San Ramon after student leaders determined the song is racially insensitive.

“It was brought to our attention that the national anthem’s third verse is outdated and racially offensive, wrote the president of the school’s Associated Study Body. “We had nothing but good intentions by removing the song so that we could be fully inclusive to our student body.”

The decision to eliminate the national anthem from student rallies has resulted in a significant amount of backlash from patriotic students and residents.

“There’s been a lot of push back on the removal of the anthem – and not just from conservatives,” senior Dennis Fiorentino said on the Todd Starnes Radio Show.

Fiorentinos, who was a guest Tuesday on my nationally syndicated radio program, said he was shocked when he realized the national anthem had been banned…

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The artist who painted former President Barack Obama for the National Portrait Gallery in the Smithsonian has a history of including depictions of sperm in his work, and has been described as “predatory” and “perverse” by The Village Voice.

Kehinde Wiley is well-known for recreating famous paintings, but replacing the featured white person – often a noble or general – with a young black man. Wiley often met the men on the street, brought them into his studio, and had them pick a work to be painted into, the famously left-wing Village Voice reported in March 2015.

Wiley “lures young men into his studio with the promise of power and glamour,” writer and art critic Jessica Dawson wrote. She called the behavior “predatory” and “perverse.”…

A toddler who was being transported to hospital in an ambulance has died after a drunk driver struck the vehicle.

The Winston-Salem Police Department says they were informed at 6:05pm on Monday that the three-year-old boy had died at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Authorities offered no additional details.

The boy was being taken to the hospital trauma center around 1am Sunday when a drunk driver – who turned out to be an illegal immigrant – hit the medical transport, causing it to roll over on its side, police said.

The driver, 27-year-old Jose Martin Duran Romero and his passenger, 33-year-old Andres Leon, initially tried to flee the scene. A witness stopped one of the men from leaving while the other was quickly apprehended by police.

Two hours after the crash, Romero submitted to a breathalyzer and registered more than two times the legal limit of alcohol in his system…

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The Israeli police investigation against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows remarkable similarities with the Special Counsel probe against President Donald Trump in the United States.

During the prime time news broadcasts Tuesday evening in Israel, the dramatic news was announced that Israel Police investigators are recommending that Israel’s Attorney General, Avichai Mandelblit, indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on bribery and breach of trust charges in two investigations.

The news raises a number of obvious questions about Netanyahu’s political future. But it also raises an equal, if not greater, number of questions about the purity of the police service’s intentions and its trustworthiness…

Since Obama’s portrait was unveiled, I’ve received a flurry of text messages from outraged artist friends I made while living in New York.

No, they weren’t outraged because they saw Kehinde Wiley’s other painting that feature black women murdering white women. They were outraged because Kehinde Wiley is a terrible artist who only rose to prominence, something they have been attempting to do their entire lives, in the art world because he is a racist gay black man.

And if that werent enough: he doesn’t even paint his own work.

Back in April 2012, Wiley New York magazine wrote a glowing piece covering Wiley and his “global reach.”…

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The U.S. government had a monthly budget surplus of $49 billion in January, down slightly from the same month last year. For the fiscal year to date, the government’s deficit is $176 billion, up from $159 billion in the year-ago period.

Some of the big drivers of spending in January were for the Department of Homeland Security, and interest on the public debt. Outlays for Homeland Security climbed by $2 billion, or 41% – something the Congressional Budget Office said was largely for disaster relief.

Receipts were up 5% more in January than last year, and withholding of individual income and payroll taxes was larger than usual since this January had one more business day than last year, CBO said…

U.S. forces killed scores of Russian mercenaries in Syria last week in what may be the deadliest clash between citizens of the former foes since the Cold War, according to one U.S. official and three Russians familiar with the matter.

More than 200 contract soldiers, mostly Russians fighting on behalf of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, died in a failed attack on a base held by U.S. and mainly Kurdish forces in the oil-rich Deir Ezzor region, two of the Russians said. The U.S. official put the death toll in the fighting at about 100, with 200 to 300 injured, but was unable to say how many were Russians.

The Russian assault may have been a rogue operation, underscoring the complexity of a conflict that started as a domestic crackdown only to morph into a proxy war involving Islamic extremists, stateless Kurds and regional powers Iran, Turkey and now Israel.

Russia’s military said it had nothing to do with the attack and the U.S. accepted the claim. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis called the whole thing “perplexing,” but provided no further details…

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A newly-discovered email suggests former FBI Director James Comey may have been less than honest about his meetings with former president Barack Obama on the subject of Russian interference with and during the 2016 general election.

Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released the email on Monday after requesting “records of meetings between President Obama and then-FBI Director Comey regarding the FBI’s investigation of allegations of collusion between associates of Mr. Trump and the Russian government.”

In turn, the National Archives provided Grassley and Graham with “classified and unclassified versions” of the email in question…

President Trump announced his 11th wave of judicial nominees on Monday, intending to nominate nine federal judges including four federal circuit court picks. Since taking office roughly one year ago, Mr. Trump faced an unprecedented amount of vacancies on the federal bench. He’s had 13 circuit court judges confirmed in the past year.

His list Monday included five district court nominees and four circuit court picks, including: Mark J. Bennett for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Andrew S. Oldham for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Michael Y. Scudder, Jr. for the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and Judge Amy J. St. Eve for the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The announcement comes as the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold confirmation hearings for five judges on Wednesday and vote on four Thursday, setting them up for a confirmation vote on the Senate floor.

There are 26 judicial nominees currently awaiting confirmation votes as of Monday…

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There’s a problem with failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s support for the “Me Too” movement, and his name is Tariq Ramadan. The radical Islamic scholar, one of two with terrorist ties that Clinton personally vouched for as President Obama’s Secretary of State, is among the latest to be accused of rape in what’s become a worldwide epidemic of women accusing powerful men of sexual misconduct.

According to the Swiss news site, The Local:

Two Muslim women have accused Ramadan, a 55-year-old Oxford University professor whose grandfather founded Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood movement, of rape. Henda Ayari, a 41-year-old feminist activist who previously practised an ultra-conservative brand of Islam, claims Ramadan raped her in Paris in 2012…

President Donald J. Trump’s fiscal year 2019 budget proposal calls for $1.7 trillion in cuts over a decade to entitlement programs, including Medicare, and a two percent yearly reduction in non-defense discretionary budget after 2019, according to a White House summary obtained by Bloomberg News.

According to Bloomberg, the summary states the budget will propose cutting spending on Medicare by $237 billion but doesn’t specify other mandatory programs that would face reductions. It also states the plan would cut the federal deficit by $3 trillion over 10 years and reduce debt as a percentage of gross domestic product.

According to the summary, Trump will urge an increase in defense spending to $716 billion and a 2.6 percent pay raise for troops. He will request $18 billion to build a wall on the Mexican border, the summary indicates.

The proposed budget also seeks $200 billion for Preident Trump’s infrastructure proposal as well as new regulatory cuts…

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Former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle were in attendance on Monday as their portraits were unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

While President Obama’s striking portrait by Kehinde Wiley garnered audible gasps of awe from the audience, Michelle’s portrait was not as warmly welcomed. Many online said that Amy Sherald’s portrait didn’t even look like Michelle.

‘Amy Sherald should have met Michelle Obama before making that portrait,’ one user wrote. Others went so far as to criticize the artist’s skill, comparing the work to a kid’s art project.

Ontario shed some 59,300 part-time jobs in January – the same month the province hiked minimum wage some 20 per cent to $14 an hour, but experts say it may be too soon to know how much the two are correlated.

The province shed 50,900 jobs total from December 2017, according to the Statistics Canada report. It gained approximately 8,500 full-time positions but lost roughly 59,300 part-time gigs, according to data provided by the agency, which noted the figures are rounded.

That means there was 3.4 per cent or 46,100 fewer part-time posts in January 2018 than the same time the previous year. Some economists said it’s possible Ontario’s minimum wage increase played a role in those declines, but noted it’s important not to read too much into one month of data.

Ontario Economic Development Minister Steven Del Duca dismissed the suggestion that the part-time job losses were a result of the provincial government’s minimum wage increase…

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It’s been five months since President Trump first nominated Richard Grenell to be the United States’ ambassador to Germany, and yet Grenell is still waiting for the Senate to confirm him so he can start his job.

Refusing to confirm Grenell not only impedes America’s foreign policy interests – Germany is one of America’s most important allies – but impedes historical progress as well: if confirmed, Grenell would be the highest-ranking openly gay diplomat in American history.

The absence of American diplomatic leadership in Berlin is painfully obvious in light of two recent developments, Grenell’s backers say. The New York Times reported earlier this week that American and Russian spies tried to negotiate a deal last year for damaging information on President Trump…

Legendary crooner Vic Damone passed away on Sunday at the age of 89, his family tells Fox News. Damone, whose smooth baritone led Frank Sinatra to famously declare he “had the best pipes in the business,” died at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Fla., surrounded by several close relatives.

Damone also received a call from his friend, President Donald Trump, at the hospital in the days before he died, his family said.

Damone starred in several television series, including “The Vic Damone Show” on NBC, and hit movies including “Kismet” and “Rich, Young and Pretty,” but the singer did not consider himself a true crossover star.

“I never thought of myself that way,” Damone wrote in his memoir. “That wasn’t my particular gift. My gift was singing.”

Best known for hits “You’re Breaking My Heart” and “On the Street Where You Live,”…

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In a video posted to Twitter Sunday, Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said there are at least four different anti-Trump dossiers stemming from Obama-Clinton inc.

“@JudicialWatch lawsuit uncovered ANOTHER Russia Dossier used to undermine @RealDonaldTrump – this one created by Obama State Department. By my count, there are now at least 4 Obama/Clinton “get Trump” dossiers,” tweeted Judicial Watch.

FITTON: “There was no basis for a legitimate investigation into alleged collusion between Donald Trump and the Russians. The only basis was a smear job created by Hillary Clinton’s political operatives. In fact, there came out another Clinton dossier, this one created by Cody Shearer, who also got it to the FBI supposedly through Fusion GPS. Cody Shearer goes way back, he’s a longtime Clinton operative-henchman…

All 71 people on board a passenger plane have died when it ‘broke up in the sky’ just minutes after taking off from Moscow Airport. The Antonov An-148, which was operated by Saratov Airlines, came down near the village of Argunovo, 50 miles south east of the capital on Sunday.

A source from Russia’s emergency services told Interfax that the passengers and crew ‘had no chance’ of survival. Shocked witnesses reportedly said they saw a burning plane falling from the sky and wreckage was spread over a large area.

A source told news agency TASS: ‘Debris has been found, there are no survivors.’ A video filmed by local boys showed wreckage in the snow and debris was found spread over a ‘large area’. One source added: ‘It appears the plane began to fall apart in the sky.’

The Antonov was operated by domestic Saratov Airlines and was flying to Orsk, a city in the Urals. There were 65 passengers and six crew on the plane. An emergencies ministry source told Interfax: ‘The plane crashed near the village of Argunovo…

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For law enforcement, Congress and even journalists, exposing misdeeds is like peeling an onion. Each layer you remove gets you closer to the truth.

So it is with the scandalous behavior of the FBI during its probe into whether President Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia in 2016. One layer at a time, we’re learning how flawed and dirty that probe was.

A top layer involves the texts between FBI lawyer Lisa Page and her married lover, Peter Strzok, the lead agent on the Hillary Clinton e-mail probe. They casually mention an “insurance policy” in the event Trump won the election and a plan for Strzok to go easy on Clinton because she probably would be their next boss…

President Donald Trump’s 2019 budget aims to bring brutal changes to the federal civilian workforce, and it could spell trouble for some employees who do not measure up.

The budget, which is set to be released Monday, contains some of the biggest reforms to the workforce in decades. To put it simply, Trump’s plan seeks to “hire the best and fire the worst,” USA Today reported.

Senior officials with the Office of Management and Budget who spoke anonymously with The Washington Times said the plan aimed to put a stop to regular, tenure – and merit – based raises for more than 1.5 million federal workers and instead focus on performance-based raises.

In other words, federal employees will now have to work hard for their raises, and those who do not perform well could be fired.

The proposal would reportedly generate $10 billion over 10 years for performance-based payments…

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It’s the biggest budget the Pentagon has ever seen: $700 billion. That’s far more in defense spending than America’s two nearest competitors, China and Russia, and will mean the military can foot the bill for thousands more troops, more training, more ships and a lot else.

And next year it would rise to $716 billion. Together, the two-year deal provides what Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says is needed to pull the military out of a slump in combat readiness at a time of renewed focus on the stalemated conflict in Afghanistan and the threat of war on the Korean peninsula.

The budget bill that President Donald Trump signed Friday includes huge spending increases for the military: The Pentagon will get $94 billion more this budget year than last – a 15.5 percent jump…

For months and months, our fake news media have been freaking out over a meeting Donald Trump Jr. took with a Russian lawyer in the hopes of getting some dirt on Hillary Clinton. Again and again, we have been told that this is the smoking gun of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

Of course, that is nonsense. Moreover, Don Jr. and the others in attendance caught on to the scheme within a few minutes, and as far as we now know, that was the end of that. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of others, who actually have colluded with the Russians as a means to dig up dirt on Trump.

Here are seven American politicians and institutions who have or are at least suspected of colluding with the Russians as a means to destroy President Trump.

The CIA

Although the far-left New York Times is desperately hoping to control the explosion of this bombshell…

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An Israeli fighter jet, under fire from Syrian anti-aircraft batteries, crashed Saturday as Israel mounted a heavy military response to what it said was the incursion of its airspace by an Iranian drone.

Two Israeli pilots were injured – one seriously – after abandoning their F-16 over northern Israel while taking part in what the Israeli military called a “large-scale attack” on at least a dozen Iranian targets in Syria.

The drone, which Israel said was launched from Syria, was shot down by an Israeli helicopter after what the military called a “severe and irregular violation of Israeli sovereignty.”

Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said Israeli forces were “fully prepared for further action.”…

In a word, the Grassley-Graham memo is shocking. Yet, the press barely notices.

Rest assured: If a Republican administration had used unverifiable hearsay from a patently suspect agent of the Republican presidential candidate to gull the FISA court into granting a warrant to spy on an associate of the Democratic nominee’s campaign, it would be covered as the greatest political scandal in a half-century.

Instead, it was the other way around. The Grassley-Graham memo corroborates the claims in the Nunes memo: The Obama Justice Department and FBI used anonymously sourced, Clinton-campaign generated innuendo to convince the FISA court to issue surveillance warrants against Carter Page, and in doing so, they concealed the Clinton campaign’s role.

Though the Trump campaign had cut ties with Page shortly before the first warrant was issued in October 2016, the warrant application was based on wild allegations of a corrupt conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin…

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Rachel Brand, associate attorney general in the Department of Justice, is stepping down from her position, Fox News confirmed on Friday. Brand, the No. 3 official in the DOJ, will be leaving following a nine-month tenure in the role.

A friend of Brand’s says she was “not looking to leave,” but was approached with a “dream job.” Brand will now head to work for Walmart as executive vice president, global governance and corporate secretary.

A new report by the New York Times reveals U.S. spies paid $100,000 to a “shadowy,” Russian promising dirt on President Trump, along with stolen cyber tools from the CIA and NSA.

After months of secret negotiations, a shadowy Russian bilked American spies out of $100,000 last year, promising to deliver stolen National Security Agency cyberweapons in a deal that he insisted would also include compromising material on President Trump, according to American and European intelligence officials.

The cash, delivered in a suitcase to a Berlin hotel room in September, was intended as the first installment of a $1 million payout, according to American officials, the Russian and communications reviewed by The New York Times.

The theft of the secret hacking tools had been devastating to the N.S.A., and the agency was struggling to get a full inventory of what was missing. […] He claimed the information would link the president and his associates to Russia…

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The FBI didn’t flag that some emails from Hillary Clinton’s private email server were marked classified with a “(C)” when they were sent – something that seemingly would have been one of the first and most obvious checks in an investigation, and one that FBI agents instantly recognized put the facts at odds with Clinton’s public statements.

The Intelligence Community Inspector General noticed it after the FBI missed it, texts between FBI agent Peter Strzok and his mistress, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, reveal. “Holy cow,” Strzok wrote, “if the FBI missed this, what else was missed?”

“Remind me to tell you to flag for Andy [redacted]emails we (actually ICIG) found that have portion marks (C) on a couple of paras. DoJ was Very Concerned about this,” he wrote…

The longtime head of public affairs at the FBI – who was a confidant of former director James Comey – is planning to retire, Fox News has learned.

A notice went out this week for a retirement get-together for Michael Kortan scheduled for Feb. 15. Since 2009, Kortan has served as assistant director for public affairs, an influential job that controlled media access. He also served under former director Robert Mueller, now leading the Russia probe.

The FBI confirmed to Fox News that Kortan is retiring. It’s unclear whether the retirement was long-planned or in any way precipitated by recent events. The FBI said he was finishing 33 years of service.

After Comey became director in September 2013, Kortan helped facilitate regular on-the-record briefings with beat reporters, a departure from previous directors. Kortan also was front and center during the Hillary Clinton email investigation…

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Failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wants women to #raiseyourvoice, though she struggled to heed the slogan as she fought back a coughing fit during this week’s “The MAKERS Conference.”

The conference – inspired by Gloria Steinem, Lena Waithe and the “Time’s Up” movement – ran from Monday through Wednesday to celebrate all kinds of liberal feminist “MAKERS,” from outspoken actress Lena Dunham to Clinton, Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey, through panel discussions and other programs.

On Wednesday, Clinton streamed into the conference on a live feed from New York to give closing remarks, though she struggled to contain a massive coughing fit…

The Trump administration is gearing up for a battle with the pharmaceutical industry this year to attack one of the most pervasive problems within the American health care system: skyrocketing drug prices. President Donald Trump signaled the upcoming campaign in his first State of the Union Address last month, claiming that one of his key priorities as president going forward is working to lower the costs of drugs.

“One of my greatest priorities is to reduce the price of prescription drugs. In many other countries, these drugs cost far less than what we pay in the United States. That is why I have directed my administration to make fixing the injustice of high drug prices one of our top priorities. Prices will come down,” the president said.

White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and newly-confirmed Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar sat down with a small group of reporters Thursday morning to exclusively preview the White House’s Fiscal Year 2019 budget…

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On January 17, 2016, a cargo plane with $400 million in foreign currencies was secretly sent to Iran in the dead of night. This was the same day the Iranian regime released four American hostages held in Tehran. Barack Obama later told reporters this was not a ransom payment. Obama lied.

Former U.S. Iranian Hostage Saeed Abidini told FOX Business Network today the Iranian regime WOULD NOT let his plane leave Tehran until the ransom plane arrived. Now this – U.S. officials held the ransom cash until the hostages were released.

The Wall Street Journal reported:

New details of the $400 million U.S. payment to Iran earlier this year depict a tightly scripted exchange specifically timed to the release of several American prisoners held in Iran…

President Trump signed a $400 billion budget deal Friday, hours after the House passed it in a pre-dawn vote, reopening the federal government after it was partially shut down for the second time in less than a month.

The House voted 240-186, with 73 Democrats and 167 Republicans voting in favor. The hours-long, middle-of-the-night shutdown was the shortest since the 1970s, according to the Congressional Research Service.

President Trump tweeted Friday that he signed the legislation for the government to officially reopen, just as the workday started for millions of federal workers.

“Just signed Bill. Our Military will now be stronger than ever before,” the president tweeted. “We love and need our Military and gave them everything – and more. First time this has happened in a long time. Also means JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!”

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The government shut down for the second time this year after Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul blocked the Senate from voting on a massive bipartisan budget bill that raises funding caps for two years ahead of Congress’ midnight deadline Thursday evening.

Despite Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s offer to allow Paul to offer a budget point of order at 6 p.m. – which would give him the opportunity to register his objections to the bill while allowing leadership to bring it to the floor for a procedural vote – the senator refused to end his protest until leadership agreed to a vote on an amendment restoring 2011 budget caps.

Leadership objected, noting it would require consent and opening up the possibility for other members to introduce amendments effectively delaying the process…

A new study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) reveals that annually, foreign refugees are being given about $867 million in welfare benefits that U.S. taxpayers pay for.

Every year, taxpayers are billed about $1.8 billion for the full cost of resettling foreign refugees, and after five years, American taxpayers will have spent about $8.8 billion on resettling foreign refugees.

* The cost per refugee to American taxpayers just under $79,600 every year in the first five years after a refugee is resettled in the U.S.;

* In 2016, the State Depart,emt spent nearly $545 million to process and resettle refugees, including $140,389,177 on transportation costs;…

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Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) may have some explaining to do. According to a just published Fox News exclusive, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee is alleged to have texted the lobbyist for a Russian oligarch, as an attempt to locate and contact dossier-creator Christopher Steele.

The text message exchange, obtained by Fox News, appears to show the Democratic senator and said lobbyist, Adam Waldman, connecting on March 22, 2017.

“We have so much to discuss u need to be careful but we can help our country,” Warner allegedly texted Waldman on March 22, 2017.

Chipotle Mexican Grill announced Wednesday many of its 71,000 employees will receive a $1,000 cash bonus and one-time stock bonus as a result of the Republican tax reform law’s passage in December.

The company did not specify the dollar amount value of the investments, but did say it was the result of “savings due to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.”

“We have always been proud of our ability to attract and retain top talent who share our passion for cooking delicious food by hand and creating an extraordinary guest experience,” Chipotle Founder and CEO Steve Ells said in a statement. “We’re giving back to these committed, motivated, and hardworking team members who have made Chipotle what it is today.”

Chipotle said qualified hourly and salaried restaurant employees will receive the cash bonus while select staff employees will get a stock bonus, which it is has already begun rolling out to workers…

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 4.15% to 23,860, notching its second-worst point drop in history. The S&P 500 fell 100 points, or 3.75%, to 2,581. The Nasdaq Composite was down 274 points, or 3.9%, at 6,777. The sell-off pushed the Dow and S&P 500 into correction territory, when stocks fall at least 10% from their highs.

U.S. equities extended their losses in a week overtaken by wild swings in the stock market. The Dow, which booked a record-breaking loss of 1,175 points Monday, has shed roughly 2,700 points since Friday amid a brisk retreat from all-time highs…

CVS Health Thursday said it plans to use more than $1 billion in benefits from a new corporate tax cut to boost wages and benefits for workers and reduce debt from its purchase of Aetna.

The drugstore chain is gaining $1.2 billion in overall annual tax savings from the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed last year by the Republican-led Congress and signed into law by President Trump.

CVS plans to use $425 million annually to increase the starting wage for hourly employees to $11 an hour, freeze employee health premiums for a year and create a new parental leave program.

CVS’ annualized tax benefit will also be directed toward “data analytics, care management solutions and store service offering pilots to improve health outcomes and lower costs for patients, as well as on debt reduction related to its planned acquisition of Aetna,” CVS said on the same day it announced fourth quarter 2017 earnings and discussed the 2018 year ahead…

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We now know that U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., got a copy of the anti-Trump dossier directly from the political opposition research firm Fusion GPS. At least, that’s according to The Washington Post.

In an article titled, “Hero or hired gun? How a British former spy became a flash point in the Russia investigation,” the newspaper detailed how McCain came to have a copy of the unverified dossier that he then forwarded to the FBI.

The article erases any doubt that McCain may not have known the origins of the dossier. It’s not clear if the Republican lawmaker knew that the DNC and Hillary Clinton’s campaign provided funding for the research…

The Democrats have a bold plan for fighting Russia. Accuse Republicans of treason, eavesdrop on their conversations and send them to jail. Overturn the outcome of a free election because that it had been tampered with by “foreign interests.” Demand that tech companies censor dissenting media outlets spreading “fake news” to protect “democracy”.

Good work, comrades. The bold plan is to fight Russia by… becoming Russia. State surveillance, endless investigations and locking up political opponents under the guise of fighting foreign influences is how Vladimir Putin does business. It’s how they do it in Turkey, Venezuela and Iran. But these days it’s how the Dems do it too.

Totalitarian states aren’t really fighting foreign influences. They’re suppressing domestic opponents. The Democrats, who were for appeasing Russia before they were against it, are doing the same thing. The same gang of commissars, czars and apparatchiks that giggled when Obama wrote off Romney’s warning with, “the 80s called and wants their foreign policy back” now sees Russians under every sofa…

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The legalization of California’s marijuana industry and the start of Girl Scout cookie sales have created an opportune moment for at least one San Diego girl. A photo posted on Instagram by San Diego marijuana dispensary Urbn Leaf showed a Girl Scout with an armful of cookies in front of a Mission Bay storefront.

“Get some Girl Scout Cookies with your GSC today until 4 p.m.! Have a friend that wants to #tagalong? Bring them with – shopping is more fun with friends anyways,” the company wrote. “GSC” refers to a product flavored like Girl Scout Cookies.

The scout’s father told 10News his daughter has sold more than 300 boxes in a total of about 6 hours. Girl Scouts San Diego says booth sales do not start for another week, but that scouts are allowed to sell from wagons as long as they have a parent or guardian present…

Fewer Americans than expected filed for unemployment benefits last week, pushing jobless claims down to their lowest level in nearly 45 years.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 221,0000, the Labor market said Thursday. That put jobless claims near that 216,000 level hit in January, the lowest level since January 1973. Economists had been forecasting a rise in claims to 232,000.

The four week moving average of claims, which is a more stable measure of employment, also fell. It declined by 10,000 to 224,500, the lowest level since March 1973. The number of people who had filed for unemployment in earlier weeks and continued to collect last week dropped 33,000 to 1.92 million.

The labor market appears to be at its strongest in decades. But there are signs that last week’s reports of wage growth may have been exaggerated by temporary factors such as one-time tax cut driven bonuses…

A new bill in New York’s state legislature would require that detergent companies like Tide make their laundry pods look like less appetizing to children.

The legislation, sponsored by state Sen. Brad Hoylman (D) and Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas (D), says companies must make their detergent a “uniform color that is not attractive to children,” The New York Post reported.

The bill comes after an outbreak of Tide Pod poisonings driven by the “Tide Pod Challenge” prevalent on social media. The American Association of Poison Control Centers last month issued a “high alert” in response to a sharp rise in the numbers of teenagers eating Tide Pods.

The New York bill would require that detergent be in a wrapper “not easily permeated by a child’s bite.”

Hoylman and Simotas said Tuesday they also sent a letter to Tide parent company Procter & Gamble calling for it to make its product look less appealing…

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When she took to the House floor on Wednesday for a filibuster-style speech, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi thanked illegal aliens for having the “courage” to bring their children illegally into the United States. During Pelosi’s remarks, she portrayed the parents of “Dreamers” as victims who have had to endure much “risk” to bring their families illegally into the country.

“I say to their parents: Thank you for bringing these Dreamers to America. We’re in your debt for the courage it took, for you to take the risk, physically, politically, in every way, to do so,” Pelosi said.

The Democrats, who are threatening to shut down the government again if Republicans don’t give in to their demands on immigration, failed to solve America’s immigration problems with legislation when Pelosi was Speaker of the House…

Nike introduced a hijab for female athletes last year. DKNY launched a dress collection for Muslim women a couple of years ago. Uniqlo, H&M and even some luxury brands started using women wearing hijabs in ad campaigns.

Now it’s Macy’s turn.

The department store introduced a new line created by a Muslim woman. She said it was difficult to find modest fashion, so she created her own.

Macy’s is now the latest retailer reaching out and courting Muslim customers by welcoming the launch of Verona Collection. The brand was created by Lisa Vogle, a young Muslim woman who graduated from Macy’s minority-and-women-owned business development program just last year.

Heba Jalloul, a modest fashion blogger and influencer with a reach of more than 170,000 followers on Instagram, said women like her have struggled to find more covered up clothing for years. Finally, however, she believes retailers are getting with the times…

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David Laufman was the Department of Justice, National Security Division, Deputy Asst. Attorney General in charge of counterintelligence, cyber security, counterespionage and export controls.

As most people are now aware the epicenter of the DOJ/FBI Clinton-Steele operation against candidate Trump stemmed from a collaborate “small group” effort of Main Justice officials within the National Security Division (John P Carlin – head), and officials within the FBI centered around the Counterintelligence Division (Bill Priestap – head).

According to the Washington Post, David Laufman resigned effective yesterday, Wednesday February 7th…

An undercover FBI informant embedded in the Russian nuclear industry who was made to sign an “illegal NDA” by former Attorney General Loretta Lynch has finally given his testimony to three Congressional committees.

William D. Campbell became an FBI counterintelligence asset after spending several years as a CIA operative who developed working relationships in the nuclear industry in Kazakhstan and Russia.

“For several years my relationship with the CIA consisted of being debriefed after foreign travel,” Campbell noted in his testimony, which was obtained by this reporter. “Gradually, the relationship evolved into the CIA tasking me to travel to specific countries to obtain specific information. In the 1990’s I developed a working relationship with Kazakhstan and Russia in their nuclear energy industries. When I told the CIA of this development, I was turned over to FBI counterintelligence agents.” – saracarter.com…

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Four million people dropped off the food stamp rolls in one month, according to the latest numbers on food stamp enrollment from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The latest USDA data show that the number of participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the government program that administers food stamps, dropped from 45,666,795 in October 2017 to 41,658,868 in November 2017 – a staggering decrease of 4,007,927 over one month.

Even though there was a temporary spike in enrollment, mostly concentrated in a few states that caused the national average of food stamp enrollment to spike, nationwide enrollment in the program as a whole is still on a steady decline…

Cody Shearer, a longtime Clinton insider, was peddling dirt on President Donald Trump as early as Aug. 2016, two months earlier than previously known, a U.S. government source tells The Daily Caller News Foundation.

The official also said they originally discounted the information when they first heard of it because of Shearer’s reputation as a Clinton hatchet man.

Shearer, a former journalist, was “not a guy with a whole lot of credibility,” said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of investigations into the various Trump-Russia investigations.

The House Intelligence and Senate Judiciary Committees are investigating the so-called “Shearer memo” and how it made its way from the Clinton operative, through the State Department, and into the hands of Christopher Steele, the former British spy who wrote the infamous dossier…

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The two-year budget plan announced Wednesday by top Senate leaders has caused an apparent split between Sen. Minority Sen. Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

The plan sharply increases domestic spending by roughly $131 million over the next two years, but it effectively blocks the Democrats’ push to win a 2018 amnesty for so-called ‘dreamer’ illegals

The agreement blocks that amnesty push because it leaves the Senate Democrats without any budget leverage to force House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan to schedule an amnesty debate on the House floor that would split the GOP caucus prior to the November election…

A contractor who was awarded a massive contract to provide millions of meals to Puerto Ricans affected by Hurricane Maria drastically underdelivered, according to a New York Times investigation.

Tiffany Brown, an Atlanta entrepreneur and self-described government contractor who owns Tribute Contracting LLC, was awarded the $156 million contract by FEMA on Oct. 3 to provide 30 million self-heating meals to Puerto Rico, but only followed through on 50,000.

Brown, the sole employee of her company, hired an 11-person wedding catering company and a Texas nonprofit that had shipped food to a Houston food bank during Hurricane Harvey to provide the meals.

But Brown’s contract was terminated by email on Oct. 19, after Brown failed to meet a deadline of providing the first 18.5 million meals. She had only delivered 50,000, according to the Times….

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Leftists love to push for a higher minimum wage. I understand why, too. It’s a good way to look like you’re fighting for the poor against their corporate overlords, making sure they get their fair share in this cruel, cruel world.

Of course, that’s all bovine excrement. Minimum wage laws are terrible for the poor, as anyone who has ever run a business already knows. More than 260,000 people who will find themselves out of work in 2018 because of new minimum wage laws, according to a study reported on by The Daily Caller:

The study, conducted by the free market advocacy group American Action Forum, found that incremental minimum wage increases implemented in 2018 alone will cost the nation roughly 261,000 jobs…

New text messages between FBI lovers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page have now been made public, and, as The Duran’s Alex Christoforou notes, the big reveal is that then-POTUS Barack Obama appears to be in the loop, on the whole ‘destroy Trump’ insurance plan hatched by upper management at the FBI.

The messages include an exchange about preparing talking points for then-FBI Director James Comey to give to President Obama, who wanted “to know everything we’re doing.”

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Fox News’ Tucker Carlson reported Tuesday on patents filed by Google that purport to show a bizarre plan to spy on you and parent your children.

“In another patent application from September 2016, Google imagines how it could take control of your parenting, your relationship with your children,” Carlson explained. “Google’s smart home system could detect children near a liquor cabinet for example, or in their parents bedroom, infer that ‘mischief is occurring’ and deliver a verbal warning.”

The Daily Caller co-founder said, “In another example, Google imagines a hypothetical child called Benjamin. Google’s cameras would be watching Benjamin at all times, carefully. They could see if he’s playing outside or using electronics, presumably they’d also try to use that information to sell him things…

He is the world’s most persistent illegal immigrant: One Mexican managed to get deported 44 times in 15 years – which means he also managed to sneak back across the border at least that many times.

The runner-up was ousted 40 times from 2001 to 2015. No. 3, 4 and 5 on the list were deported 35, 34 and 31 times, respectively, according to data provided to The Washington Times by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

While those are the most extreme cases, repeat-illegal immigrants were back in the news this week after police said a twice-deported man was driving drunk in Indiana on Sunday morning when he plowed into pro football player Edwin Jackson and his Uber driver, killing them both.

President Trump tweeted about the “disgraceful” death and called the killing “one of many such preventable tragedies.”

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, one of the Republicans’ chief negotiators in the current immigration debate, said the fatal crash should be a wake-up call…

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Approximately 50,000 GM factory workers will each get a profit-sharing check totaling $11,750 later this month, according to company statements as reported in the Detroit Free Press and USA Today.

In addition, about 40,000 union workers at Fiat-Chrysler will get profit-sharing checks of $5,500, as well as $2,000 bonuses. Also, about 54,000 workers at Ford will get profit-sharing checks of $7,500 each.

GM made $12.8 billion in pre-tax profits in 2017, said USA Today. Fiat-Chrysler earned $4.4 billion in pre-tax profits in 2017, and Ford pulled in $8.4 billion in pretax profits.

“The actions we took to further strengthen our core business and advance our visions for personal mobility made 2017 a transformative year,” said GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra…

An undocumented immigrant urinating in public used a box cutter to repeatedly stab a man who had merely suggested he pull up his trousers and use a proper restroom, police say.

On Nov. 30, around 11 p.m., Montgomery County Police were dispatched to the Wheaton Metro bus turnaround along Georgia Avenue. Upon stepping out of their cruisers, officers saw a man with stab wounds and bloody slashes to his neck, face and stomach.

That victim, plus an uninjured eyewitness, pointed officers toward Salvador Gomez-Lopez, 46, who was allegedly drunk and belligerent. The two men explained that Gomez-Lopez was relieving himself in plain view of fellow bus passengers. When the victim questioned his actions, Gomez-Lopez reportedly reached into his backpack and grabbed hold of a razor-sharp box cutter.

What followed was a physical tussle that landed both Gomez-Lopez and the victim on the cold bus stop pavement. The victim ultimately pried away the knife, but only after suffering serious lacerations, including three deep cuts to the neck…

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China is reportedly moving missile defense batteries and troops closer to its border with North Korea, a potential sign that Beijing anticipates either a large refugee wave north or a military disturbance triggered by the belligerence of communist dictator Kim Jong-un.

The South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo cited Radio Free Asia (RFA) in a report Monday, stating that RFA had compiled evidence that China had “late last year deployed another missile defense battery at an armored division in Helong, west of Longjing in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture.”

The “North Korean source in China” speaking to RFA also noted that Pyongyang had observed the movement of 300,000 troops closer to the North Korean border and “missile defense batteries near North Korean reservoirs by the Apnok and Duman rivers.”…

Power companies and the states where they do business say consumers will see lower utility rates due to the tax law from congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump that went into effect Jan. 1.

The Republican tax law reduced the federal corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. Utility companies say they want their savings to benefit consumers, although few specifics on changes to typical bills are available.

Adam Michel, policy analyst for economic studies at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal that the benefits of the tax cuts to utilities may go beyond lower rates for consumers.

“State-regulated utilities are an interesting case for tax reform,” Michel said in an email Monday. “Because their rates are not set by markets, but instead by bureaucrats, consumers should see the utilities’ tax savings show up directly in their bill through lower rates. Some of the tax savings may also be redirected into infrastructure investments for better or expanded service.”…

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The first Falcon Heavy rocket built by the private spaceflight company SpaceX soared on its maiden voyage today (Feb. 6) – a historic test flight that also sent a car toward Mars and included two confirmed booster landings.

Billed as the world’s most powerful booster since NASA’s Saturn V, the Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off from Launch Pad 39A here at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) – the same site used by NASA’s Apollo moon missions and space shuttles – at 3:45 p.m. EST (2045GMT).

Standing 23 stories tall, the Falcon Heavy rocket is SpaceX’s largest rocket yet and the most powerful booster since NASA’s mighty Saturn V moon rocket. Its first stage is powered by three core boosters based on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets, with 27 engines (nine per booster) firing in unison to produce about 5 million lbs. of thrust (22,819 kilonewtons) at liftoff…

A California judge ruled Monday the state couldn’t force a cake shop owner to bake a cake for a gay couple’s wedding, ruling that doing so would constitute a violation of free speech.

Superior Court Judge David Lampe denied the State of California’s request for a preliminary injunction that sought to force bakeshop owner Cathy Miller to design a wedding cake for a gay couple.

“For this court to force such compliance would do violence to the essentials of Free Speech guaranteed under the First Amendment,” Lampe ruled, according to a press release sent to The Daily Caller News Foundation.

The injunction also posited that if Miller refused to design the cake, the state would force her to close her Tastries Bakery shop altogether.

“We are pleased that the judge recognized that the First Amendment protects Cathy’s freedom of speech,” chief counsel and Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund (FCDF) president, Charles LiMandri, said after the ruling, the press release reports…

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President Trump will likely not extend the March 5 deadline when work permits will expire for Dreamers protected from deportation by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, a new report said Tuesday.

“I doubt very much” that the president would extend the program, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said, according to The Washington Post. Kelly said he was “not so sure this president has the authority to extend it” because the administration believes the Obama-era program was illegal.

Senators are trying to come up with a plan to protect the undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children – and it was unclear whether Kelly’s stance was a negotiating tactic or a valid threat.

Amtrak continues to have problems with its trains. A high-speed Amtrak traveling to New York broke into two pieces in Maryland as it reached speeds of up to 125mph on Tuesday. The malfunction happened at about 11:20am on the 2150 Acela express train from Washington, DC to New York’s Penn Station.

‘Earlier this morning, at approximately 6:40 am, Acela Express train 2150 traveling from Washington, DC, to Boston, experienced a mechanical issue when two of the train’s cars separated,’ the company said in a statement provided to DailyMail.com.

‘There were approximately 52 passengers aboard, who were transferred to Northeast Regional Train 180. There were no reported injuries to customers or crew. We are currently investigating the cause of the car separation, inspecting every Acela trainset, and taking any necessary actions to prevent a reoccurrence.’

It has been a bad two months for U.S. rail travel, with at three least serious accidents taking place in Tacoma, Charlottesville and Columbia…

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Monday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” conservative talker Mark Levin laid out his case arguing the release of a FISA memo by the House Intelligence Committee last week raised questions about the previous administration. That included some of those holdovers involved in the day-to-day operations of the Department of Justice, including Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller.

Levin argued those were the questions that should be asked and summed up the circumstances as 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton having “paid for a warrant.”

Partial transcript as follows:

This is bad. Let me tell you a couple of things here. Now we know why [Adam] Schiff and the rest of them are fighting so hard…

Republican senators Charles Grassley (Iowa) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) on Monday released a letter they sent to the FBI asking that ex-British spy Christopher Steele be investigated for possible criminal violations.

Steele authored the anti-Trump “dossier” that was full of false or unverified information, provided to the FBI and leaked to the press in 2016.

The FBI secretly used the Steele dossier to convince a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to permit one of the most sensitive invasions of privacy against a U.S. citizen: electronic surveillance by the government.

Top Obama and Trump officials signed four wiretap applications against Trump adviser Carter Page starting in fall of 2016 – a month before the presidential election – relying, in part, on the dossier. That’s according to House Republicans who, on Friday, released a summary of classified documents they reviewed…

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A new cancer treatment experiment at Stanford University that used immune-stimulators to target tumors in mice had remarkably encouraging results.

After injecting a combination of two immune boosters directly into solid mouse tumors, the research team said the vaccination eliminated all traces of the specifically targeted cancer from the animal’s entire body – including metastases that were previously untreated.

“When we use these two agents together, we see the elimination of tumors all over the body,” senior author of the study, Dr. Ronald Levy told the Stanford Medicine News Center. “This approach bypasses the need to identify tumor-specific immune targets and doesn’t require wholesale activation of the immune system or customization of a patient’s immune cells.”…

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) suggests Russians promoted the Second Amendment during the 2016 presidential election in the hope that more Americans would kill each other. He made the observation during a speech at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Media Research Center reports that Schiff claimed that Russians took to social media during the presidential campaign in order to divide America and cause one demographic of Americans to oppose another. He said Russia pushed “content designed to pit us against each other, to exploit our divisions.”

He suggested that this included Russians parroting Black Lives Matter and promoting the Second Amendment.

MRC quoted Schiff saying, “Apparently the Russians are very big fans of our Second Amendment. They don’t particularly want a Second Amendment of their own, but they’re really glad that we have one…

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John Mahoney, best known for playing Martin Crane on 11 seasons of “Frasier,” died in Chicago on Sunday while in hospice care, his manager, Paul Martino, confirmed. He was 77.

Mahoney played the father of Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce’s characters during the show’s run on NBC from 1993 to 2004. He won a SAG Award and received two Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations for his portrayal. He was also a mainstay of Chicago’s theater community.

From 2011 to 2014, Mahoney had a recurring role on “Hot in Cleveland” as Roy, the love interest of Betty White’s character, Elka. He was much praised for his performance as an anguished CEO in psychological counseling on Season 2 of HBO’s “In Treatment” in 2009…

Federal authorities arrested a Texas state judge after he allegedly accepted more than $6,000 in bribes for favorable rulings, the Department of Justice announced Monday.

Rodolfo “Rudy” Delgado, 64, presides over the 93rd District Court for the State of Texas. An unnamed attorney with whom Delgado had frequent dealings allegedly bribed him on three separate occasions in exchange for “favorable judicial consideration,” the DOJ alleges.

FBI special agents had been investigating the judge since November 2016 using the unnamed attorney as an informant, according to the complaint. The attorney admitted to repeatedly bribing Delgado going back to 2008.

Working with FBI special agent Peter Kilpatrick, the attorney, referred to as “confidential human source,” bribed Delgado twice with amounts totaling $525. CHS then conducted a third bribe of $5,500.

CHS contacted Delgado to meet in a restaurant in South Texas and brought an envelope full of federally provided cash, which Delgado accepted…

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The Feminist Business School, founded by Evergreen State College graduate Jennifer Armbrust, teaches that capitalism is an “economy that values masculine traits” such as “meritocracy,” “competition,” and “individualism.” The California-based site recently launched two more online courses to coach aspiring businesswomen on how to “topple the patriarchy” and promote a more “feminist economy.”

Shunning the “profit seeking motive” of traditional commerce, the Feminist Business School advocates that businesswomen adopt more “feminine traits” such as “gratitude,” “intimacy,” and “connecting with nature.”

“The feminine economy proposes a new set of values and redistribution of money and power based on feminine principle,” argues Armbrust on the program’s website…

The suspected drunk driver who killed Indianapolis Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson in a crash on the morning of the Super Bowl is a Guatemalan citizen who is in the U.S. illegally and has been deported twice, police revealed Monday.

Indiana State Police identified the driver of an F-150 truck in the incident as Manuel Orrego-Savala, 37, who had been deported in 2007 and 2009.

“State police investigators are working with U.S. Federal Immigration Officials and they have placed a hold on Orrego-Savala,” police said in a statement.

Jackson, 26, and Jeffrey Monroe, 54, also in his vehicle, were hit and killed around 4 a.m. on Sunday on Interstate 70 in Indiana. Investigators believe Monroe was Jackson’s Uber driver and Jackson was the passenger, FOX59 reported.

The station said at some point during the ride Jackson became sick, and the pair were hit on the emergency shoulder of the highway after Monroe pulled over…

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Philadelphia Eagles fans are rioting around the city amid reports left-wing group Antifa has infiltrated celebrations and an explosion has been heard. The scenes follow the team securing a historic victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 2018.

Police and civilians have been injured and cars flipped as the strained security forces try to contain the revellers. NFL fans have been met by riot police as they cause chaos on the streets of the city.

A police scanner has reportedly revealed shocking information about authorities desperate battle to contain the out of control celebrations. Up to 50,000 people are believed to be listening to a live broadcast of police radios calls…

A man is in custody after assaulting a Springville police officer Friday afternoon, and a good Samaritan with a concealed firearm helped end the attack.

Just before 2 p.m., an officer spotted a pair of feet dangling from a Tabitha’s Way donation bin along Main Street in Springville. He pulled over and asked the person to get out of the bin. That person was Paul Douglas Anderson. Anderson eventually got out of the bin, leaving clothes and shoes on the ground, but he kept his hands in his pockets.

Springville Police said that officer asked Anderson multiple times to remove his hands from his pockets, for fear he had a weapon. When Anderson finally removed his hands, he used them to punch the officer in the face. Police said he kept punching repeatedly until a passerby stopped to help.

Derek Meyer said he was driving north on Main Street when he spotted the police lights. He said when he looked over he saw Anderson punching the police officer…

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To paraphrase a more recent song, it’s hard out there on a Dem. Staggered by Donald Trump’s unthinkable victory in the presidential election, Democrats have continued to be pummeled by the Trump’s tax reform, the supercharged economy, his withering tweet-scorn for them and their media flunkeys, their own failed government shut-down, and a rousing State of the Union address that raised his poll numbers and made the Democrat Congressmen in the audience look like pouting prom wallflowers.

And now comes the “Memo,” the House Intelligence Committee’s exposure of the slow-motion coup engineered by partisan FBI and DOJ functionaries, and other deep-state members of the “resistance.”…

A New York high school has canceled a production of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” after a student activist group complained about a white student being cast in a lead role. The school now will be putting on an alternative production.

Members of Ithaca High School’s Students United Ithaca – all five of them (below, left) – got together and wrote up a letter and list of demands after the role of Esmeralda went to a Caucasian peer.

“It shows you that theater wasn’t made for you,” said Maddi Carroll, a member of the Students United group who is African-American. “And it shows you that, if you can’t get the parts that are written for you, what parts are you going to get?”

Students United’s letter conceded that the student cast as Esmeralda “is a stellar actor, singer, and dancer” and that any production would be “lucky to have her.” However, it added: “Our concern is not with her, but with the fact that in terms of demographics, she is the wrong choice for this role.”…

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If you thought Friday’s FISA abuse memo could be the sole report on FBI and Justice Department corruption, House Intelligence chairman Devin Nunes may have a surprise.

According to Axios, the Committee could publish up to five more reports outlining “politically motivated “wrongdoing” across various agencies, including the FBI, the broader Justice Department, and the State Department.”

Axios reports:

What we’re hearing: Republicans close to Nunes say there could be as many as five additional memos or reports of “wrongdoing.” But a source on the House Intelligence Committee tells me there’s no current plan to use the same extraordinary and highly controversial process they just went through…

In its partisan zeal to protect the ongoing witch hunt against President Trump, our Nixonian media went into hyper-drive last week to ensure that the unethical and un-American behavior of President Obama’s FBI and Justice Department remained covered up from the public.

After this cynical effort failed with the release of the Nunes memo Friday, the media quickly switched tactics and is now working feverishly to muddy the waters about the horror show revealed in the memo.

To begin with, it is obvious that a hysterical talking point about declaring the release of the memo a “Constitutional Crisis” has been spread far and wide. Naturally, the “constitutional crisis” in question is not the wrongdoing committed by federal law enforcement. Instead, because we are now deep within the head of the media’s fabricated reality where wrong is right and up is down, the “constitutional crisis” is that government wrongdoing was uncovered…

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On Friday, we reported that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein threatened the House Intelligence Committee with retaliation to stop the probe.

Fox News legal analyst Greg Jarrett told Sean Hannity on his TV show this evening that his congressional source told him Rod Rosenstein in a meeting three weeks ago threatened Chairman Nunes and others. Rosenstein said he was tired of dealing with the House Intelligence Committee. He threatened to request House Intel text messages to stop their probe.

Greg Jarrett said Saturday in a tweet that a second source confirmed in a meeting on January 10 Rosenstein warned the members of the House Intel Committee he would subpoena the committee’s calls and texts to stop their investigation…

Two years after your chancellor decides to admit over 1 million undocumented middle-eastern immigrants to boost the economy and instead gets a series of terrorist attacks in return, this is the outcome: “Germans are taking up arms of angst.”

According to Handelsblatt, demand in Germany for non-lethal weapons, including gas pistols, flare and stun guns, as well as pepper spray is on the rise. While in the U.S., the German magazine notes, every mass shooting is followed by yet another heated gun debate.

in Germany gun-related crime is comparatively rare, but the issue of guns is increasingly in the forefront of political discussions. That’s because sales of freely available arms are booming.

The number of applications for small arms permits has set new records. In 2017, 557,560 people obtained such a license. In January 2016, only 300,949 people had a permit. This means ownership soared by a staggering 85% in just under two years…

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On the same day the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released the Nunes memo showing the FBI relied on the salacious and unverified Trump dossier to obtain a surveillance warrant on Carter Page, a federal judge ruled to withhold the Comey memos. The memos, authored by former FBI Director James Comey, are about his nine private conversations with President-elect and President Trump.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who ruled in favor of the FBI’s request to keep the Comey memos secret, also sits on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The FISA court is the same court that approved the surveillance on Trump associates.

Boasberg refused to release the documents on the basis they were still being used by special counsel Robert Mueller…

The Nunes memo released Friday shows special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating the wrong people “on purpose,” contends talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh.

The declassified report by the Republican majority on the House Intelligence Committee confirms that Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid for a British spy to produce a salacious and discredited opposition report on Donald Trump that was submitted by the Justice Department to a top-secret surveillance court as evidence to obtain warrants to spy on a Trump campaign adviser.

“I was really worried that expectations for this memo had been raised so high that no matter what the contents people would react, ‘Is that it? Is that all?’ Folks, if anything, this memo was undersold. The revelations in this memo, even though the foundation of it we suspected and were very certain were true, the add-on items, the confirmation of the political corruption of the FBI at the upper levels and the DOJ, ditto, is inescapable,” Limbaugh said…

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The Democrats and the media spent a week lying to the American people about the “memo.”

The memo was full of “classified information” and releasing” it would expose “our spying methods.” By “our,” they didn’t mean American spying methods. They meant Obama’s spying methods.

A former White House Ethics Lawyer claimed that the Nunes memo would undermine “national security.” On MSNBC, Senator Chris Van Hollen threatened that if the memo is released, the FBI and DOJ “will refuse to share information with the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.”

Senator Cory Booker howled that releasing the memo was “treasonous” and might be “revealing sources and methods” and even “endangering fellow Americans in the intelligence community.”…

The American economy is on track to grow at a 5.4 percent annualized rate in the first quarter of this year, the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDPNow forecast model showed on Monday.

The regional Fed’s forecast rose from last week’s 4.2 percent growth following a report on manufacturing that showed more expansion than expected.

The forecast of real consumer spending growth rose from 3.1 percent to 4.0 percent, while the forecast of investment growth soared from 5.2 percent to 9.2 percent.

This is an early reading, based on just one-months data. Even the most optimistic economists do not expect the economy to expand at that rate in the first quarter.

Both the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow and the New York Fed’s Nowcast had readings for the fourth quarter of 2017 that were substantially higher than the official initial estimate, which came in at a 2.6 percent annual growth rate…

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President Donald Trump has approved the release of a classified memo compiled by House Republicans on the intelligence committee, clearing the way for its release Friday, multiple outlets report.

The document allegedly contains proof that some of the top officials in the Obama-era national security establishment abused their authority to obtain surveillance warrants on members of the Trump 2016 campaign.

House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes assembled the memo with fellow Intel committee members and staff based on classified information turned over by the FBI and the DOJ. The memo will be released with some technical redactions requested by the FBI…

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has obtained a treasure trove of top-secret and highly classified files, which it has dumped in a report titled: “The Cabinet files,” triggering the largest-ever breach of cabinet security in Australian history.

Top-secret documents relating to national security, immigration, welfare, communications and even controversial racial discrimination laws, which spans at least five administrations, somehow ended up at a second-hand shop in Canberra, Capital of Australia.

The ABC says the highly classified documents were locked in two large filing cabinets at a furniture clearinghouse store in Canberra without keys. An unidentifiable individual purchased the filing cabinets for a steep discount and then drilled out the locks to only discover thousands of files revealing the inner workings of government.

All files are classified, some as “top-secret” or “AUSTEO,” which means government eyes only. It is hard to comprehend the thought process here…

According to Turchynov, the cruise missile is locally made in Ukraine by manufacturers of the State Enterprise “State Kyiv Design Bureau Luch” in cooperation with other state and private defense companies.

Turchynov made further arrangements with the NSDC, which coordinates Ukraine’s national missile program, to further “develop not only ground-launched cruise missile systems but also sea- and air-launched.”…

There have been 2,355 flu-related deaths in the state of Texas during this flu season alone so far. Health experts are still urging everyone to get a flu shot if you haven’t gotten one yet. The flu shots are in high demand.

“A lot more people have been actually coming up to us and asking us for it whereas before people are a bit resistant,” said Cristina Herrera, a pharmacist and clinical services manager.

Over the counter cold and flu medicine, like Tamiflu, is tough to find. “That’s been flying off the shelves,” Herrera told us.

Dozens of people were waiting for a flu vaccine at a free immunization clinic put on by the Metro Health District.

Since October, the Department of State Health Services says more than 2,300 flu-related deaths have been reported using data from death certificates provided by the CDC. Here in South Texas, the flu has been a factor in more than 250 deaths…

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Goodwill employees discovered a grenade launcher, loaded with a live grenade, this past weekend in a load of items donated at a Bradenton store, according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.

On Sunday, deputies were called out to the Goodwill Manasota Bargain Barn, 7501 15th St. E., after employees discovered a grenade launcher with a grenade inside it, according to an incident report. The store manager told deputies that the grenade launcher had come in on Jan. 25 in a shipment from a store on Cortez Road.

According to the Goodwill manager, employees at the Bradenton location didn’t know what the donated item was, so they sent it to the Bargain Barn location…

The new year got off to a strong start for job creation, with businesses adding 234,000 in January, according to a report Wednesday from ADP and Moody’s Analytics. Economists surveyed by Reuters had been looking for private payrolls to grow by 185,000.

Job creation was concentrated largely in service-related industries, which contributed 212,000 to the total. However, within that sector some of the better-paying industries showed solid gains: Trade, transportation and utilities led with 51,000, education and health services added 47,000 and professional and businesses services contributed 46,000. Leisure and hospitality services also grew by 46,000.

On the goods-producing side, manufacturing added another 12,000 jobs while construction saw 9,000 new hires despite the traditionally slow month for the industry.

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Nikola Motor Company, a developer of hydrogen-powered big rigs, announced on Tuesday that it plans to build a $1 billion plant in Arizona.

Construction of the 500-acre manufacturing facility is scheduled to begin in 2019, and truck production will start in 2021. The company said it will begin transferring its headquarters and research and development operations to Arizona immediately. Nikola expects the plant to create 2,000 new jobs and generate more than $1 billion in capital investment in the region by 2024.

Trevor Milton, Nikola’s CEO and founder, said the company considered nine states and 30 potential factory sites over the past year. Nikola ultimately settled on a site located on the west side of Phoenix…

A woman who was forced to marry her rapist when she was 11 helped inspire the Florida Senate to unanimously pass a bill Wednesday that would end child marriage in the state.

Sherry Johnson sat in the public gallery as several senators talked about her story and thanked her for pushing for the bill that would prohibit anyone under 18 from getting married under any circumstance. Johnson, 58, was first raped by a church deacon when she was 9, she gave birth at 10 and was forced to marry at 11. Johnson said her church pressured her mother to consent to the marriage and a judge eventually approved it.

She smiled and was hugged by relatives when the bill passed.

“My soul is happy that we’ll be able to save many, many, many children from being abused,” Johnson said afterward. “It takes one person to actually come out and speak against it, but there are many others that actually have experienced it.”

Florida doesn’t allow anyone under the age of 18 to independently consent to marriage…

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South Carolina Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, announced Wednesday that he is retiring from Congress at the end of his term, becoming the latest high-profile committee chairman to opt against re-election.

“I will not be filing for re-election to Congress nor seeking any other political or elected office; instead I will be returning to the justice system,” Gowdy said in a statement.

The former federal prosecutor was elected to Congress in 2010. He quickly gained fame for his role in investigating Obama administration scandals on the Oversight Committee and then as the chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi…

The DOJ Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, wants to know why McCabe allegedly took little to no action for approximately three weeks on the trove of emails sent by Hillary’s top aide, Huma Abedin – Weiner’s wife, which were discovered during an unrelated investigation into Weiner “sexting” with an underage girl.

The inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, has been asking witnesses why FBI leadership seemed unwilling to move forward on the examination of emails found on the laptop of former congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) until late October about three weeks after first being alerted to the issue, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter…

A key question of the internal investigation is whether McCabe or anyone else at the FBI wanted to avoid taking action on the laptop findings until after the Nov. 8 election, these people said. It is unclear whether the inspector general has reached any conclusions on that point. -WaPo

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Judicial Watch today released 42 pages of heavily redacted State Department documents containing classified information that was provided to Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and outspoken critic of President Donald Trump.

The documents show Russian political interference in elections and politics in countries across Europe.

According to a March 2017 report in the Baltimore Sun: “Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin received classified information about Russia’s involvement in elections when the Obama administration was attempting to disseminate that material widely across the government in order to aid in future investigations, according to a report Wednesday…

Two senior FBI officials have now reviewed a controversial Republican staff memo alleging abuses of government surveillance programs during the 2016 presidential campaign, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News – adding that the officials “could not point to any factual inaccuracies.”

The two officials – one from the bureau’s counterintelligence division and the other from the legal division – followed up after an initial review of the memo during a rare Sunday trip to Capitol Hill by FBI Director Christopher Wray.

The House Intelligence Committee voted late Monday along party lines to release the memo, prompting a backlash from Democratic lawmakers. Top Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff called it a “very sad day.” President Trump has five working days to review the contents but is widely expected not to block its release.

After the contentious committee vote Monday night, the source confirmed that House staffers physically took the memo over to the White House for the president…

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Actor Tim Allen has joined the cast of new movie aimed at disrupting the liberal and PC culture in Hollywood, on college campuses and in comedy.

Allen’s “Last Man Standing” sitcom was canceled last year and outraged fans believe ABC pulled the plug because the family comedy highlighted conservative values. ABC denied it was over politics.

Allen has signed onto the docudrama “No Safe Spaces” that’s expected to hit theaters in the fall.

Fellow comedian Adam Carolla and conservative radio show host Dennis Prager are making the movie to promote free speech at a time they say the entertainment industry, media and college campuses too often shut down or blackball controversial viewpoints…

Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly threatened to put up a fight if law enforcement officials execute Republican Rep. Paul Gosar’s suggestion of arresting and deporting illegal immigrants in attendance at President Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.

In a series of tweets on Tuesday afternoon, Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz, asked U.S. Capitol Police and Attorney General Jeff Sessions check to see if any State of the Union attendees are in the country illegally after multiple Democratic lawmakers announced they would be bringing Dreamers to the speech.

“Of all the places where the Rule of Law needs to be enforced, it should be in the hallowed halls of Congress,” Gosar tweeted. “Any illegal aliens attempting to go through security, under any pretext of invitation or otherwise, should be arrested and deported.”

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Tennessee lawmakers are considering a new bill that would protect unborn babies from abortion as soon as their hearts begin beating.

Fox 17 News reports state House lawmakers moved House Bill 0108, sponsored by Rep. James Van Huss, R-Jonesborough, to committee last week.

The bill “requires fetal heartbeat testing prior to an abortion and prohibits abortions from the point a fetal heartbeat is detected except in certain medical emergencies.” It requires that women be offered the opportunity to view or hear her unborn baby’s heartbeat.

It also allows women to sue the abortionist if she does not receive the required information or receives false information…

Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and J.P. Morgan Chase are forming a not-for-profit health care venture to lower health care costs for their U.S. employees, the companies announced Tuesday morning, sparking a slide in the shares of a host of health care-related companies.

The initial focus of the independent company will be on technology that will provide their U.S. employees and their families with simplified and high-quality health care at accessible costs, the companies said.

“The ballooning costs of health care act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy,” Berkshire Hathaway (brk-b) chairman and CEO Warren Buffett said in a statement. “Our group does not come to this problem with answers. But we also do not accept it as inevitable.”

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ABC News revealed last week that at least 24 House Democrats will bring illegal aliens as their guests to Trump’s SOTU address.

Meanwhile, in stark contrast to the open borders agenda of Democrats, Trump is expected to bring Evelyn Rodriguez to the SOTU address. Evelyn’s 16-year-old daughter, Kayla Cuevas, was beaten and stabbed to death with a friend of hers by MS-13 gang members, a violent street gang from El Salvador that has proliferated due to illegal, mass immigration to the U.S.

Yesterday, Ann Coulter nailed the sentiment of many Americans when she was a guest on conservative Howie Carr’s radio show. At the opening of his radio show, Carr played a clip of the radical Trump-hating Representative Frederica Wilson…

U.S. Border Patrol agents have arrested two Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients in separate incidents for their involvement in human smuggling in the sanctuary state of California.

The first incident happened last Wednesday when agents received a tip from an American citizen who saw suspected human smuggling occurring near Torrey Pines State Beach. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reports:

Agents observed the vehicle stopped on the side of Interstate 5 near Dairy Mart Rd. at around 12:10 p.m., and conducted an immigration check.

Agents found three men inside the vehicle, the driver, a 20-year-old DACA recipient, his 22-year-old cousin who is a Mexican national illegally residing in the United States, and a 21-year-old Mexican national illegally in the country. Both the driver and his cousin admitted their involvement with human smuggling in the area…

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Reclusive Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss – one of the Democrats’ biggest and most secretive donors – is currently under investigation for a 2011 sexual assault, as originally reported in a handwritten complaint by his former employee Jacqueline Long.

The current status of the investigation was confirmed by a Nov. 30, 2017 document obtained by TheDCNF in a case titled State vs. Hansjorg Wyss. The document was from the office of Fredric M. Knapp, the Morris County, New Jersey, prosecutor.

The document confirmed the receipt of sexual paraphernalia from Long, including a “purple vibrator.” She alleged in the complaint the device was used by Wyss as a weapon during the assault against her…

FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe is set to receive a nearly $2 million pension, according to a Washington Free Beacon analysis.

The top law enforcement official, who has come under scrutiny for overseeing the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server, stepped aside on Monday. McCabe took early retirement, which he was eligible for after serving at the bureau for over 20 years.

McCabe joined the FBI in 1996 and worked his way up to high paying executive service positions. He was serving as the assistant director in charge of the Washington, D.C., field office until July 2015, when he was named the FBI’s associate deputy director, carrying an ES Level 4 pay scale.

The Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) calls for law enforcement officers to receive 1.7 percent of the officer’s average highest salary over a period of three consecutive years per year for the agent’s first 20 years of service…

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On Monday, the House Intelligence Committee voted to release the four-page memo that supposedly shows how the Obama administration turned the intelligence community into a political weapon by abusing the FISA program to spy on the Trump campaign.

The memo, which will not be immediately released, was drafted by Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) and has infuriated Democratic lawmakers who claim that it will undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government officials. The Hill reports:

Some Republicans who have read the memo have hinted heavily that it contains information that could unravel the entire Mueller investigation…

Tonight I’ll show you a chart from Statistics Canada, from their report published last week called “The Effect of Labour Demand on Regional Demographics.”

The chart illustrates the “average paid employment growth in economic regions, by province and territory.” And according to this report, in the past ten years (or at least from 2008 to 2015, which are the latest figures available), there have been no net new jobs created east of Manitoba:

Not in any Atlantic province. Not in Quebec. And not in Ontario. The only job growth in the country was in the west, and the north.

Of course, it immediately goes to the insanity of Atlantic Canada refusing to allow high-paying industries set up shop there – the bans on fracking, for example, even though Nova Scotia has between US$20 and $US60 billion in shale gas under its feet; the decision to kill the Energy East pipeline.

In the past ten years, labour participation in Eastern Canada has fallen almost 3 per cent…

The Senate failed this evening to pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would’ve banned abortions after 20 weeks, after Democrats filibustered the bill. In a 51-46 vote, the bill failed to make it out of debate and to a final floor vote.

Two Republicans – Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska – continued their support for abortion by crossing the aisle to vote with the Democrats against the bill. Meanwhile, three Democrats – Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania, and Joe Donnelly of Indiana – broke ranks and voted with Republicans in favor of the legislation.

The vote split along similar party lines in 2015, the last time the Senate considered similar legislation…

“At ExxonMobil, we plan to invest more than $50 billion over the next five years to expand our business in the United States. These investments are underpinned by the unique strengths of our company and enhanced by the historic tax reform recently signed into law,” Chief Executive Office Darren Woods said in a posting Monday on the company’s website.

“For instance, we will be investing billions of dollars to increase oil production in the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico, expand existing operations, improve infrastructure and build new manufacturing sites. This will create thousands of jobs, strengthen the U.S. economy and enhance energy security,” Woods added.

“We’re actively evaluating the impact of the lower tax rate on the economics of several other projects currently in the planning stages to further expand our facilities along the Gulf Coast.”…

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Bowing to pressure by critics who have called it culturally offensive, the Cleveland Indians will remove the Chief Wahoo logo from its jerseys and caps beginning in the 2019 season.

After discussions with Major League Baseball and Commissioner Rob Manfred, the Indians will no longer sport the red-faced, smiling caricature during games. The logo, which had been used by the team since 1947, has been deemed racist and offensive by critics.

Manfred told the Associated Press that the team conveyed to him that some fans have a “long-standing attachment” to the logo, but the Indians agreed that it’s “no longer appropriate” to use on the baseball field.

Under pressure, the team has been transitioning away from Chief Wahoo in recent years…

A 32-year-old man died at BYL Nair Municipal Hospital in Mumbai on Saturday night after he was reportedly sucked into a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine while holding a metallic oxygen cylinder in his hand. Three people, including a doctor, have been arrested.

Rajesh Maruti Maru (32) had accompanied his sister’s mother-in-law, Laxmibai Solanki, to the hospital’s MRI section for a test. Around 8.30 pm, he reportedly got trapped with a leaking oxygen cylinder inside the MRI machine.

“Magnetic force of the machine sucked him in. We are not sure how he went so close. An inquiry is on,” said Dr Ramesh Bharmal, Dean, Nair Hospital. Staffers claimed that the cylinder’s knob broke open when Maru was pulled in, causing it to leak. Maru inhaled an excessive amount of oxygen.

The police registered a case under Section 304A of the Indian Penal Code for causing ‘death by negligence’, against hospital staffers. A doctor, Saurabh Lanjekar, ward boy Vitthal Chavan, and a helper, Sunita Surve…

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Top FBI official Andrew McCabe has been “removed” from his post as deputy director, Fox News is told, leaving the bureau after months of conflict-of-interest complaints from Republicans including President Trump.

A source confirmed to Fox News that McCabe is taking “terminal leave” – effectively taking vacation until he reaches his planned retirement in a matter of weeks. As such, he will not be reporting to work at the FBI anymore. The move was first reported by NBC News.

McCabe has long been a controversial figure at the bureau. Republicans have questioned McCabe’s ties to the Democratic Party, considering his wife ran as a Democrat for a Virginia Senate seat in 2015 and got financial help from a group tied to Clinton family ally Terry McAuliffe…

With a 12.7/21 in metered market ratings, the Recording Academy’s big hootenanny was also way down from the early numbers for the LA-based February 13, 2017 59th annual show. By way down, I mean a just over 20% decline from last year to what looks to be an all-time low for the ceremony.

Music’s biggest night saw a series of political gestures in support of the #MeToo and Time’s Up anti-sexual harassment movements, as several stars wore white roses on their garments as a show of solidarity.

Rapper Kendrick Lamar, who dominated the night winning five Grammys, kicked off the Madison Square Garden event with an explosive performance of his hit song “XXX,” which featured American flags on giant screens above him…

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Karma. That’s the word one Snohomish County homeowner said came to mind when she watched a thief slip and fall on wet grass while stealing several packages off her porch.

Lizeth Ababneh’s RING and Nest security system captured a woman grabbing three boxes off her porch. But as the woman ran to an awaiting car she slipped. In the video, the woman struggled to get up and it appeared her leg or ankle is injured.

The driver of the getaway car gets out and carries the suspected package thief to the car, then comes back for the boxes.

Ababneh told Q13 News the video is comical, but the boxes contained needed medication for her husband. The Snohomish County Sheriff’s office has opened up an investigation into the theft…

In an incident that recalls the “almost simultaneous” bomb threats across Russia back in September that resulted in the evacuation of 45,000 people, briefly disrupting life in Russia’s largest city, a bomb threat targeting 25 buildings in Moscow prompted mandatory evacuations of Russia’s upper house of Parliament and the city’s stock exchange, according to TASS.

The threats also targeted hospitals in the city, a source within the city’s security services told TASS.

“We received an anonymous call about an explosive device planted in the building. In line with the security requirements, the staff members were evacuated and checks at the building are underway,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, received two bomb threats over the past four hours, the source said. Moscow’s famed Bolshoi Theater has also been targeted.

As we pointed out at the time, a wave of phone calls has swept across Russian cities and towns since September…

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Europe’s populist movement was given a shot in the arm on Saturday when Czech Republic President Milos Zeman, running primarily on an anti-migration platform, fended off a challenge from political neophyte Jiri Drahos.

Zeman won 51.4 percent of the vote from the two-day runoff while Drahos won 48.6 percent.

Czech Radio reports that Drahos won in most of the main cities, while Zeman scored big with smaller towns and the countryside, with analysts saying Zeman’s “common touch” made the difference.

Zeman, a former left-wing prime minister who ascended to the presidency in 2013, had been widely criticized for what critics described as Islamophobic rhetoric…

Lost in all the sound and fury that accompanied the recent shutdown of the federal government was some good news for Americans facing ever increasing health care costs. Part of the price paid by the Democrats to get out of the hole they dug for themselves when they forced the shutdown was the suspension of three onerous Obamacare taxes – the medical device tax, the tax on premium (Cadillac) health plans, and the health insurance (HIT) tax.

All three were wildly unpopular with the voters, due to go into effect imminently, and would have made medical care even more expensive.

The 2.3 percent tax on medical devices, which went into effect on January 1, has long been billed by Obamacare advocates as a corporate tax. Like all taxes levied on corporations, however, it would have inevitably been passed on to the customer. And the customers affected by this particular excise tax are Americans who must have crucial medical devices such as pacemakers and artificial joints…

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A Texas inmate who had escaped has been arrested trying to break back in the prison with bottles of alcohol, tobacco and home-cooked food. The Jefferson County sheriff’s office says 25-year-old Joshua Hansen of Dallas has been charged with escape and possession of marijuana. He was originally imprisoned on a narcotics conviction.

Deputies spotted Hansen Wednesday as he ran onto private land near the prison in Beaumont and grabbed a duffel bag containing three bottles of brandy, some whiskey, tobacco and “a large amount of home-cooked food.” They arrested him as he ran back toward the prison.

Nearby rancher Michael Latta told KFDM-TV that he has for years contended with low-level offenders who flee the facility only to later return…

The political network overseen by industrialist billionaires Charles and David Koch on Saturday pledged to spend nearly $400 million on the midterm elections to defend Republican majorities in Congress and in state legislatures across the country.

The Koch network, meeting for its annual winter donor conference near Palm Springs, Calif., said the investment would also focus on promoting conservative policies and was equal to a 60 percent increase over what it spent in the 2016 presidential election. The campaign was set to include a $20 million expenditure to promote the Republican tax overhaul passed and signed into law late last year.

“We’re all in,” Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, told reporters during a news conference to kick off the conference at the Renaissance Esmeralda Indian Wells Resort and Spa.

Phillips conceded that the political environment for Republicans is “challenging,” though he declined to pin the blame on President Trump…

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon that Brown is still receiving Federal Employees’ Retirement System annuity benefits even though she was sentenced to prison for wire fraud and tax evasion – actions that stemmed from a sham charity founded by the former congresswoman.

OPM would not say how much Brown is receiving and added that the details of an individual’s annuity are protected from public release under the Freedom of Information Act…

The higher a country’s debt to GDP ratio, the less healthy the country’s economy. With the GDP numbers released yesterday, President Trump’s policies have officially decreased the Debt to GDP ratio by 1.2% in the President’s first year in office.

In contrast, President Obama increased the U.S. Debt to GDP ratio his first year in office by 14.5%. Obama increased the rate a total of 37% over his 8 years in office.

Since his inauguration President Trump has focused his efforts on the security of the country and on the prosperity of its economy. The results of his actions are taking shape. The U.S. GDP has increased each quarter in 2017 with the 4th Quarter GDP increasing to $19.739 trillion – the highest GDP for any country in world history.

On the other hand, the President has curtailed U.S. spending. The result is that the U.S. Debt to GDP ratio decreased in 2017 from 105% to 104%. No President in more than 50 years has decreased the Debt to GDP ratio in his first year in office by more than 1%…

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Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton dropped a bit of a bombshell on Saturday when he said the FBI may have also lost Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s text messages.

Appearing on Fox News’ “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” Fitton told host Jeanine Pirro there is “gamesmanship going on” at the bureau and that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should send the US Marshals over to secure the evidence.

“We sued back in September for the text messages of the number two at the FBI, Andrew McCabe,” Fitton explained. “And they just told us this week, they gave us everything they’re going to give us, and not one text message was turned over.”

A video in which a Southern California high school teacher is heard slamming members of the military as “the frickin’ lowest of the low” in a classroom rant to students has gone viral.

El Rancho High history teacher Gregory Salcido – who also serves as an elected Pico Rivera city councilman and was once mayor – even goes so far as to refer to those who are in the military overseas as failed students who had no choice but to serve, “Fox & Friends” reported Sunday.

“Think about the people you know who are over there,” Salcido is heard saying. “Your freakin’ stupid Uncle Louie or whatever. They’re dumb s hitss. They’re not high-level bankers. They’re not academic people. They’re not intellectual people. They’re the freakin’ lowest of our low.”

He is also heard questioning why military recruiters were allowed to visit the school.

“We don’t allow pimps to come into the school,” he says.

A post on Facebook with videos of the rants had nearly 1.5 million views as of Saturday, the Orange County Register reported…

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A Florida mayor has been removed from office following her arrest on three felony charges. The Sun Sentinel reports that Gov. Rick Scott issued an executive order Friday suspending Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper from office while she faces the charges.

The Broward State Attorney’s Office says Cooper, who surrendered Thursday, has been charged with money laundering, official misconduct and exceeding campaign contribution limits following an undercover FBI investigation. Prosecutors say Cooper, a Democrat, also is charged with the misdemeanor soliciting contributions in a government building.

Her attorney, Larry Davis, says she plans to plead not guilty. The felonies carry maximum prison sentences of five years. The misdemeanor has a maximum one-year prison term…

An FBI agent shot and killed a kidnapping victim Thursday in Houston, Texas – a victim the FBI appears to have been trying to rescue. The victim was struck by at least one gunshot at a home, but later died at a hospital, in what the FBI called an “operation” it was conducting at the residence.

Local police said the victim had been kidnapped and held for ransom, CBS News is reporting. It started when two suspects apparently went to the victim’s home and demanded payment for a reported $8,000 debt.

The suspects tied up the victim and his son, trashed the house they were in, and then took off with the victim. The suspects then demanded a $20,000 ransom payment from the victim’s brother, the brother later told police.

The authorities eventually located the suspect in a home with a women and other children. They stormed in. That’s when the fatal shot was fired. The suspect was still tied up when he was shot by the agent, court documents obtained by local affiliate KHOU-TV indicate…

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Hillary Clinton reportedly helped protect a senior adviser to her 2008 presidential campaign after accusations that he repeatedly sexually harassed a young subordinate. The New York Times reported Friday on the incident, revealing how Clinton allegedly intervened to help keep the adviser, Burns Strider, on board.

According to the Times, the complaint was made by a 30-year-old Clinton staffer who shared an office with Strider. She reportedly told a campaign official that Strider had rubbed her shoulders inappropriately, kissed her on the forehead and sent suggestive emails.

Clinton’s 2008 campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, reportedly recommended Clinton fire him. But sources told The Times he was kept on the campaign at Clinton’s request…

Law enforcement agencies in approximately 675 jurisdictions around the United States declined to comply with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “detainer” requests and hand over to ICE removable aliens whom those jurisdictions had arrested for violating local laws, according to the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security.

According to the IG, this lack of cooperation from local law enforcement agencies has hindered ICE’s efforts to identify known or suspected foreign terrorists, who are inside the United States.

On Jan. 5, 2018, the IG issued a report – “ICE Faces Challenges to Screen Aliens Who May Be Known or Suspected Terrorists” – that discussed the issue.

“ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) faces challenges in implementing the Known or Suspected Terrorist Encounter Protocol (KSTEP) screening process, which is used to identify aliens who may be known or suspected terrorists,” the report said…

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Jillian Blackwell videotaped a little experiment with her Google home device and shared the results with her friends on Facebook. Her video went viral, and here’s why…

In the video, Jillian asks her Google home device, “Hey Google, who is Allah?” The Google device responded: “According to Wikipedia, in Islamic theology, God is the all-powerful, all-knowing creator, sustainer, ordainer and judge of everything in existence.”

Jillian then asks, “Hey Google, who is Buddha?” The Google device responded with another Wikipedia definition.

But shockingly, when Blackwell asked the Google device “who is Jesus?”, the device responded, “Sorry, I’m not sure how to help.”…

An after school P.E. teacher stripped naked and chased California elementary school students on a playground, according to a Tuesday video. A construction worker captured video of the unidentified teacher during and after the incident at Carthay Center Elementary School, reported CBS Los Angeles.

“He was supposed to be helping them learn P.E., run around and have fun,” said one parent to CBS Los Angeles. “But he undressed and started chasing the kids while he was naked, and then the kids ducked and dodged, ran into some of the classrooms and got safe haven that way.”

“The guy could’ve hurt one of the children,” said another parent. “All of the kids [saw] his private parts. Very embarrassing.”

Carthay Center Elementary School told parents it had contacted police in a robocall and letter. The school said it briefly locked down while police took the teacher into custody.

“Our School Police Department is planning to pursue criminal charges against the individual,” a school district spokesperson told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Joseph Roman is fighting on the front lines of progressives’ war against gender and age discrimination.

The 38-year-old from Chicago faces criminal sexual assault charges for alleged attacks on three girls between the ages of six and eight, but prosecutors contend Roman confessed to the crimes because “he is a 9-year-old trapped in an adult’s body,” the Chicago Tribune reports.

Roman reportedly made the admission on video Monday, the same day Chicago Police arrested him for the Class X felony. At Roman’s hearing on Wednesday, prosecutors said the attacks involved three girls from different families who stayed with Roman for extended periods between 2015 and 2018, though it’s unclear why…

The United States Air Force is launching its largest-ever three-week premier set of air war drills, called Red Flag 18-1, starting on Friday and will conclude February 16, said the 99th Air Base Wing Public Affairs.

On January 26, the air war drill, known as Red Flag, officially kicked off at Nellis Air Force Base, 20-miles outside of Las Vegas. Base officials have warned residents of increased military aircraft activity due to aircraft departing from Nellis Air Force Base twice-a-day to conduct war drills on the Nevada Test and Training Range.

“We’re trying a few new and different things with Red Flag 18-1,” said Col Michael Mathes, 414th Combat Training Squadron commander. “It’s the largest Red Flag ever with the largest number of participants, highlighting the balance of training efficiency with mission effectiveness.”

The drill involves a variety of attack, fighter and bomber aircraft as well as participants from the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, and Marine Corps…

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More than three dozen people in St. Lucie County have been busted for dealing drugs as part of ‘Operation Big Mi-Steak.’ Sheriff Ken Mascara said the drug bust was the result of long-term work that began a few year back when Oxycontin abuse became a problem in St. Lucie County.

“We knew and predicted that there would be collateral damage and that collateral damage is heroin and opioid addictions and that’s what we’re seeing now and dealing with now,” said Sheriff Mascara.

In 2016, he changed his mission for heroin overdoses. Sheriff Mascara said he had one or two detectives respond to every overdose, not to arrest the user but to find information on the dealer. He said that initiative paid off…

Antifa in Phoenix have torched memorial photos of Kate Steinle that were posted on the Arizona State University campus on Monday evening. The masked far-left terrorists posted photos of themselves burning the posters of the 32-year-old shooting victim while sticking their middle fingers up at the flames.

They also replaced the photographs of Steinle with “Anti-Racist Action” flyers that promoted the use of violence against those they deem to be “Nazis” – so pretty much anyone to the right of Karl Marx.

One of the participants in the burning wrote about their efforts on the anarchist blog It’s Going Down.

“Around 50 fliers were found in total, a large increase in prior instances, and it was determined that at least two people were involved, with the comparison of fliers, and techniques used to post them. After we were confident that we had rounded up the significant majority of fascist materials, we moved to a nearby park and disposed of them by fire,” the terrorist wrote…

In one text released to the public, Page, in reference to Clinton, wrote to Strzok, “One more thing: she might be our next president. The last thing you need us going in there loaded for bear. You think she’s going to remember or care that it was more doj than fbi?”

Strzok responded, “I called Bill and relayed what we discussed. He agrees. I will email you and [redacted] same.”

These messages were sent during the FBI investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server…

Former Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly sought to undermine the Trump administration’s current policy in dealing with the nihilist Palestinian leadership. According to an article appearing in Maariv, as quoted by the Jerusalem Post,

Kerry met a senior Palestinian leader, Hussein Agha, in London recently and told him to convey a clandestine message to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The message was that Abbas should “play for time” and “not yield to President [Donald] Trump’s demands.”

Kerry reportedly predicted that President Trump would not be in office for long – perhaps not more than a year. Possibly for that reason, Kerry allegedly advised that the Palestinians should aim their criticisms at President Trump personally, rather than more broadly at the United States.

According to the report, Kerry also offered to help the Palestinians devise an alternative peace plan and advance it with Europeans, Arab states and the international community at large…

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WWE founder and chairman Vince McMahon announced Thursday he is giving a professional football league another go. It will be called the XFL, the same name of the league McMahon and NBC tried for one season in 2001, but it won’t rely on flashy cheerleaders and antics as its predecessor did, he said.

McMahon said he is the sole funding source for the league, which is slated to begin in January 2020. Its first season will have eight teams around the country playing a 10-week schedule.

The initial outlay of money is expected to be around $100 million, the same amount of WWE stock McMahon sold last month and funneled into Alpha Entertainment, the company he founded for the project…

In the U.S. Senate Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence stepped in to break a partisan 49-49 tie on President Trump’s nomination of Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback for the post of ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.

Every Democrat, joined by independent Sens. Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, voted against Brownback’s nomination, while the Republicans lost their narrow advantage due to the absence of two senators.

The GOP controls 51 of the Senate’s 100 seats, but Sen. John McCain of Arizona is undergoing cancer treatment and Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) is in Davos for the World Economic Forum.

So in his role as president of the Senate, Pence cast the tie-breaking vote first during a procedural vote to end debate on Brownback’s nomination, and then again in the final roll call vote, which passed 50-49…

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A California state assemblyman last week introduced a bill calling on dine-in restaurants to refrain from handing out straws to customers.

Democratic Majority Leader Ian Calderon’s AB 1884 would prohibit waiters and waitresses from giving plastic straws to customers unless they request them. The penalty for violating the law would be a maximum fine of $1,000 or an imprisonment of no more than six months, or both.

“We need to create awareness around the issue of one-time use plastic straws and its detrimental effects on our landfills, waterways, and oceans,” Calderon said in a press release. “AB 1884 is not ban on plastic straws. It is a small step towards curbing our reliance on these convenience products, which will hopefully contribute to a change in consumer attitudes and usage.”…

Months of missing text messages between two FBI officials have been located, according a letter obtained by The Hill.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz told Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) in a letter that the messages spanning from December 2016 to May 2017, previously though missing due to a technological glitch affecting FBI phones, have been found.

“The [Office of the Inspector General] has been investigating this matter, and, this week, succeeded in using forensic tools to recover text messages from FBI devices,” the letter read.

The messages between FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page have come under scrutiny primarily by GOP lawmakers who say that they are proof of political bias against President Trump in the Russia investigations and in the FBI overall.

The glitch that resulted in their missing messages reportedly affected thousands of FBI phones…

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Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said Wednesday that the classified report compiled by the House Intelligence Committee, which reportedly details abuses by federal law enforcement and surveillance agencies, is “sloppy” and “baseless.” He also has not read the memo.

“I have not seen the memo,” Warner said, according to CNN. “But I think it is sloppy, careless, and again, I think has no grounding in fact.”

The senior senator form Virginia did not explain how he could know intricate details about a document he has not even read.

Under the rules of the U.S. House and the committee motion to make the report available to the entire House, only members of the House have been authorized to read the four-page classified memo…

The UK’s surge in recorded violent and sexual crime, including knife attacks, has accelerated at a faster rate than previously thought over the past year, new police statistics reveal. Sadiq Khan’s London saw the largest increase in recorded knife crime – rocketing by a massive 38 per cent in just one year.

In England and Wales, around 5.3 million violent crimes were recorded in the 12 months to September 2017, up 14 per cent on the year before, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

The latest police figures from 44 forces around the country reveal that robbery was up by 29 per cent, sex offences up 23 per cent, knife crime up 21 per cent, and violent crime overall surged by 20 per cent.

There were a massive 37,443 knife crimes and 6,694 gun crime offences recorded in the 12 months to September. Since 2011, the number of offences involving a knife or a sharp instrument had been falling, but began rising in the past three years, the ONS explained…

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Home Depot is doling out bonuses of up to $1,000 to U.S. hourly workers, becoming the latest major national employer to hand out checks after President Trump’s corporate tax cut. The home improvement chain said it would also continue to distribute “success sharing” payments tied to the company’s financial performance.

Unlike national retailers Walmart and Starbucks, Home Depot did not announce plans to increase wages. But Home Depot said in a statement that “amid the changing retail environment, the company intends to invest in its associates, its stores and the customer experience.”

Workers with at least 20 years of experience will get the full $1,000 bonus, Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes said in an email…

As we reported last week, Sweden may or may not be preparing for civil conflict – as Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said that the government would do whatever it takes – including deploying the military – to end the wave of gang violence coming primarily from young migrants in the country’s “no-go” zones.

“It’s not my first action to put in a military, but I’m prepared to do what it takes to ensure that the seriously organized crime goes away,” Lofven said after the party leadership discussion in parliament, adding “it is also obvious that there are social problems… We see criminals with total lack of respect for human life, it’s a terrible development I’m determined to turn around.”

Lofven’s comments come on the heels of a spate of gang related murders, including that of a 21-year-old man in Malmِ last weekend, shot in the head as he stepped out of a taxi near a grocery store. The same weekend, a 16-year-old boy found shot in Rosengهrd district of Malmِ died in the hospital next to a bus stop…

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Senate Democrats are willing to drop their demand that relief for Dreamers be tied to any long-term budget agreement – a potential boost for spending talks, but one that could face opposition from their House counterparts.

The shift comes in response to the deal struck between Senate leaders Monday to reopen the government and begin debate on an immigration bill next month. Meanwhile, budget negotiators are expressing optimism that a two-year agreement to lift stiff caps on defense and domestic spending is increasingly within reach.

“We’re viewing [immigration and spending] on separate terms because they are on separate paths,” Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Tuesday…

More than 125,000 employees at Walt Disney Company across the globe will each receive a $1,000 cash bonus, the company announced Tuesday.

The company will also invest $50 million to help hourly employees pay for college tuition starting with the upcoming fall semester, company chairman and chief executive officer Robert Iger announced Tuesday. Nearly 88,000 employees are eligible.

“I have always believed that education is the key to opportunity; it opens doors and creates new possibilities,” Iger said in a statement. “Matched with the $1,000 cash bonus, these initiatives will have both an immediate and long-term positive impact.”

Several large American companies have planned bonuses for employees recently. More than 67,500 Florida workers at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club will get paid $105.7 million in increases and bonuses, Orlando-based Darden Restaurants said earlier this month the new GOP tax cut will prompt it to spend an additional $20 million on its 175,000-plus employees this year…

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For years, there’s been a growing cry from the PC left to either entirely disavow Columbus Day or rename in honor of the Native Americans that liberals believe Christopher Columbus murdered in cold blood. Well, in San Francisco they finally complained loud enough that they got their wish: On Tuesday, the city’s Board of Supervisors voted to officially rename Columbus Day “Indigenous Peoples Day.”

Supervisor Malia Cohen introduced the legislation, which reads, “San Francisco has a responsibility to oppose the systematic racism towards indigenous peoples in the United States, which perpetuates high rates of poverty and income inequality, exacerbating health, education, and social crises among Native Americans.”…

The Justice Department is threatening 23 so-called sanctuary cities, including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, with subpoenas if they fail to provide documents to show whether local law enforcement officers are sharing information with federal immigration authorities.

The demand, outlined Wednesday by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, represents a new escalation by the Trump administration to punish local jurisdictions that do not fully comply with federal immigration enforcement efforts, including by sharing the immigration status of local prisoners.

The subpoena threat comes as Congress prepares to restart talks on revamping the immigration system, days after lawmakers’ failure to reach an agreement on the politically-charged issue led to a three-day government shutdown.

The action prompted quick and harsh protests from local officials, including the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors who said he would not attend a previously scheduled Wednesday meeting at the White House…

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The Senate has confirmed a former drug company executive as President Donald Trump’s second health secretary. Alex Azar will take on the leadership of the Department of Health and Human Services. The 55-43 vote was largely along party lines.

HHS is a $1 trillion department that oversees major health insurance programs, drug and food safety, disease control and prevention, and advanced medical research. Azar succeeds Tom Price, who resigned amid questions about his travel.

Azar says his priorities are to help curb high prescription drug costs, make health insurance more affordable and available, focus Medicare payments on quality, and confront the growing opioid addiction epidemic…

Robert Mueller was first appointed as Special Counsel for the investigation of Trump campaign ties to Russia after former FBI Director James Comey leaked a memo about his conversation with Donald Trump to the media. Now, the same friend who helped Comey with the leak is representing him during the investigation.

After the infamous Comey Memo was written about in The New York Times, it was confirmed that Comey’s friend, Columbia University Law Professor Daniel Richman played the role of middle man, delivering the goods to the newspaper, who then reported the details. Now, a BuzzFeed News report says that Comey himself was questioned by the Special Counsel’s office, and Richman is one of the attorneys representing Comey in the matter.

Richman said that he and the rest of Comey’s team would not comment on the former FBI Director’s meeting with Mueller’s office. When Comey testified before Congress last June, he said that he had a friend of his who worked at Columbia Law School give the contents of his memo to a reporter…

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The three inmates who famously broke out of Alcatraz prison in 1962 may not have gone down to their watery graves in shark-infested San Francisco Bay after all, according to a report.

According to a letter allegedly written by one of the three convicts in 2013, they all survived their daring escape.

“My name is John Anglin. I escape from Alcatraz in June 1962 with my brother Clarence and Frank Morris. I’m 83 years old and in bad shape. I have cancer. Yes we all made it that night but barely!” said the letter, obtained by local CBS affiliate KPIX.

He then tries to strike an astonishing deal with the FBI – offering to be locked up again for a year in exchange for medical care…

Court documents recently filed by the government further rock the credibility of Russia Special Counsel Robert Mueller because they show that as FBI Director Mueller he worked to cover up the connection between a Florida Saudi family and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The documents reveal that Mueller was likely involved in publicly releasing deceptive official agency statements about a secret investigation of the Saudis, who lived in Sarasota, with ties to the hijackers. A Florida journalism nonprofit uncovered the existence of the secret FBI investigation that was also kept from Congress.

Under Mueller’s leadership, the FBI tried to discredit the story, publicly countering that agents found no connection between the Sarasota Saudi family and the 2001 terrorist plot. The reality is that the FBI’s own files contained several reports that said the opposite, according to the Ft. Lauderdale-based news group’s ongoing investigation.

Files obtained by reporters in the course of their lengthy probe reveal that federal agents found “many connections” between the family and “individuals associated with the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001.”…

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Chinese scientists have cloned monkeys using the same technique that produced Dolly the sheep two decades ago, breaking a technical barrier that could open the door to copying humans.

Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, two identical long-tailed macaques, were born eight and six weeks ago, making them the first primates – the order of mammals that includes monkeys, apes and humans – to be cloned from a non-embryonic cell.

It was achieved through a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), which involves transferring the nucleus of a cell, which includes its DNA, into an egg which has had its nucleus removed…

Former investment banker and self-styled Wall Street whistleblower Charles Ortel is one of the foremost experts on Clinton Foundation corruption.

According to Ortel, “examination of available facts demonstrates the Clinton Foundation and its network of false-front charity “initiatives” and affiliates remains the largest set of unprosecuted charitable frauds in American history.”

Everything from the charity’s structure to pay-to-play schemes in relation to the ill-fatted Russia “reset,” tell a tale of corruption and cronyism that would make Al Capone blush.

Charles Ortel writes in Lifezette:

In a sad sense, international charities are perfect vehicles for such questionable activities. After all, who can check effectively how much money is in truth raised and where discrete portions of these revenues are disbursed in far-flung corners of the world?

Meanwhile, international charity also provides cover to disguise payoffs…

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Starbucks Corp. just joined the growing list of U.S. corporations that are boosting pay for workers thanks to the Trump tax cuts.

The company revealed Wednesday morning that it plans to spend $250 million on new employee benefits – including a pay boost for domestic workers, in the wake of the federal tax overhaul, Bloomberg reported.

The coffee chain will increase pay for its 150,000 US hourly workers and salaried employees in April, following its regular annual raise earlier this month. It’s the latest U.S. corporation to pledge to spend a portion of its federal tax-cut windfall this month. The company is also giving an extra 2018 stock grant to U.S. employees, and sick time will expand parental leave to include non-birth parents…

Grand Traverse County, Mich. deputies arrested a man who was reportedly naked in the lobby of an area hotel. Around 1:50 a.m. Monday Grand Traverse 911 got a hang-up call from the Grand Traverse Resort and a deputy was sent out to investigate.

The Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office said a 20-year-old Grawn man walked into the lobby of the resort naked and when deputies arrived he was lying on the ground in “altered consciousness.”

While deputies called EMS, the man tried to leave saying he needed to go upstairs to “get my thoughts, they’re in my jacket pocket.” When EMS checked the man, he started yelling and ran toward the door to the parking lot.

After telling the man to stop, a deputy fired his taser at the man but the probes missed him and he ran into the parking lot. Eventually, the man laid down in the parking lot and deputies took him into custody…

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Sean Andrew Duncan is a 21-year-old convert to Islam living in Virginia, and is under investigation for ties to the Islamic State (ISIS).

In the course of the investigation, agents found that Duncan was in possession of child pornography, and was seeking a second wife while still being married to his first – a 36-year-old physician named Zakiya Sadeq whom he had met at Islamic gatherings.

Duncan embodies a phenomenon that authorities so far have determinedly ignored: the lethal convert to Islam.

After all, where did Sean Andrew Duncan get the idea to do all these things? Could these ideas have had anything to do with his new, peaceful religion?…

The FBI’s top agent on the Trump-Russia investigation sent a text message last year that one top Republican senator says suggests he saw no evidence of Trump campaign collusion.

The text message, which was sent by Peter Strzok, is “jaw-dropping,” Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a radio interview on Tuesday.

In an interview with WISN-Milwaukee radio host Jay Weber, Johnson read aloud a May 19, 2017 text that Strzok sent to Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer and his mistress. Strzok wrote: “You and I both know the odds are nothing. If I thought it was likely, I’d be there no question. I hesitate in part because of my gut sense and concern that there’s no big there there.”

Johnson said that the text referred to the Mueller investigation, which had kicked off two days earlier. Strzok joined that team, but was removed in July after the Justice Department’s inspector general discovered his anti-Trump text exchanges with Page…

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Vice President Mike Pence told the Israeli parliament on Monday that the United States will open its embassy in Jerusalem “before the end of next year,” while also reiterating President Trump’s declaration that the U.S. recognizes Jerusalem as “the capital of the state of Israel.”

The vice president was on the final leg of a 3-country visit in the Middle East, during which he had frank but cordial discussions with the leaders of Egypt and Jordan before arriving in Israel. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, continuing his temper tantrum, has refused to meet with the vice president.

Despite Abbas’s snub and forceful rejection of any U.S. role in future peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis, Vice President Pence urged the Palestinians to resume negotiations…

Democrats are not willing to protect some babies born alive. A bill put to a vote on Friday, named the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, proposes exactly what the name suggests. And nearly all Democrats in the House voted against it.

To quote the bill, it requires “any health care practitioner who is present when a child is born alive following an abortion or attempted abortion to: (1) exercise the same degree of care as reasonably provided to any other child born alive at the same gestational age, and (2) ensure that such child is immediately admitted to a hospital.”

Hadley Arkes, the engineer of a lighter version of this bill signed into law by George W. Bush in 2002, set forth to introduce a “modest first step.” He reasoned, “Even if Roe v. Wade articulated an unqualified right on the part of a woman to end her pregnancy, the pregnancy would now be over. No right to end the pregnancy would require at this moment the death of the child.” Yet 183 of the 189 Democrats who voted in the House just declined to support this measure…

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A German nurse who is already serving a life sentence for two murders has been charged with killing 97 more patients over several years at two hospitals in northwestern Germany, prosecutors said Monday.

The new indictment against Niels Hoegel was expected after officials said in November that he may have killed more than 100 patients in total. He worked at a clinic in Oldenburg from 1999 to 2002 and in nearby Delmenhorst from 2003 to 2005.

Hoegel was convicted in 2015 of two murders and two attempted murders in Delmenhorst and was given a life sentence. During his trial, Hoegel had said he intentionally brought about cardiac crises in about 90 patients…

Former CIA agents have reportedly found one of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar’s cocaine smuggling submarines.

Escobar used submarines to transport cocaine from Colombia to Puerto Rico, after which it would be transported to the U.S. mainland. If the submarine is found, it could contain clues which may finally reveal the location of Escobar’s rumoured £50bn hidden fortune.

Divers who used to work for the U.S. agency are exploring an unknown location off the coast of Colombia, the Sun reports. A Discovery channel program has been following two former CIA agents on their hunt for Escobar’s unconfirmed fortune.

In a clip from the show uploaded to Discovery UK’s channel on YouTube, ex-CIA agents Doug Laux and Ben Smith are seen diving off the coast, but not digging up anything of value. Underwater cameras show them scouring the seabed and finding metal and a box, but no further clues to the cash…

New York will continue to provide some illegal immigrant “Dreamers” with access to government-run Medicaid insurance no matter what happens in Washington, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday.

There are 42,000 people living in New York who are currently protected by the Obama-era DACA deportation amnesty, which makes them eligible for Medicaid in the state. Mr. Cuomo said given the uncertainty over the program in Washington, he wanted to guarantee the migrants health coverage.

“The federal government’s failure to take action to protect DACA recipients is appalling, un-American, unjust and puts hundreds of thousands of children at risk. Here in New York we will do everything in our power to protect DACA recipients and ensure they receive health care,” Mr. Cuomo said.

State taxpayers bear all costs for the coverage because federal law prohibits federal taxpayers from paying for illegal immigrants…

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The National Football League has rejected a Super Bowl advertisement from American Veterans urging people to stand for the national anthem.

The nation’s largest veterans service organization had been invited by the NFL to place an ad in the Super Bowl LII program. AMVET’s advertisement included a two-word message – “#PleaseStand.” Click here to see the ad.

“It’s a simple, polite request that represents the sentiment of our membership, particularly those whose missing or paralyzed limbs preclude standing,” wrote National Commander Marion Polk in a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

American Veterans accused the NFL of outright censorship by rejecting the advertisement…

A bill to eliminate marriage licenses and end the requirement for a marriage ceremony in Alabama is on the move in the state Legislature.

Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Range, has introduced the legislation several times since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015 in the case Obergefell v. Hodges.

Albritton’s bill, which has changed some from the initial version, has passed the Senate previously. Last week, senators made it one of the first bills they passed this session when they approved it on a 19-1 vote.

The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider it on Wednesday, which could set it up for a final vote in the House next week.

Instead of applying for a marriage license, a couple would submit a form to the probate judge swearing that they are of legal age, are entering the marriage willingly, are not already married and are not related by blood or adoption…

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Congressional investigators learned from a new batch of text messages between anti-Trump FBI investigators that a “secret society of folks” within the Department of Justice and the FBI may have come together in the “immediate aftermath” of the 2016 election to undermine President Trump, according to Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) who has reviewed the texts.

The new texts were included in a 384-page DOJ document release to Congressional investigators last Friday – during which Congress was notified in the cover letter that that five months of text messages from December 14, 2016 to May 17, 2017 have gone missing (If only the NSA had copies).

Ratcliffe was joined by Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) to discuss the latest developments with Fox News host Martha McCallum…

A California Uber driver who happens to be an illegal alien from Mexico, has been charged with raping, robbing an assaulting at least four women.

Three out of the four women were on their way home from parties and were intoxicated, making it easier for the illegal alien to rape them.

Fox News reported:

Alfonso Alarcon-Nunez, 39, faces 10 criminal charges, including forcible rape, rape of an intoxicated victim, oral copulation of an intoxicated victim and first degree burglary. He was arrested at his home in Santa Maria on Wednesday.

San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow said Alarcon-Nunez was not always driving for Uber when he picked up those women but added that the alleged crimes show that the company should improve its driver screening process.

Prosecutors say Alarcon-Nunez targeted women who were on their way home from parties…

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Since his election in 2016, President Trump has triggered liberals all across America, and perhaps nowhere more than in the state of California. Now, two California Democrats, Kevin McCarty and Phil Ting, have taken it upon themselves to introduce a bill which would force big businesses to give up half of their massive savings (due to President Trump’s tax cuts) directly to the state.

This is one of the worst cases of “Trump Derangement Syndrome” we’ve seen yet, and is a clear example of why California’s economy is going down the drain. Sadly, Democrats continue to ruin the beautiful state of California with their radical left-wing behavior, and as usual, at the root of their bizarre and outlandish scheme lies their burning hatred for our “America First” president…

Democrats caved to pressure to end the shutdown Monday, and voted to reopen the Federal government having gained nothing from three days of hostage-holding over immigration reform.

Sen. Chuck Schumer confirmed the fold in a sad press conference held just following the vote.

According to The Hill, Democrats agreed to vote for Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s continuing resolution, funding the government through early February, on the promise that Senate Republicans will take up an extension to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) act sometime between now and February 8th.

This means, of course, that Democrats, who held funding the Federal government hostage by refusing to end a filibuster Friday night, thus causing the shutdown, gained absolutely nothing in two days of negotiations, except a general promise on the part of the GOP to address border issues in the near future…

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U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has warned that Washington will not certify the “ill-conceived” Iran nuclear deal. He reiterated a previous threat from U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw from the accord unless it is fixed.

“The Iran nuclear deal is a disaster and the United states of America will no longer certify this ill-conceived agreement,” U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said Monday addressing the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.

“Unless the Iran nuclear deal is fixed, President Trump has said the U.S. will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal immediately,” Pence said, adding that Washington is working to effectively curb Iran’s alleged nuclear and ballistic programs…

Chelsea Manning has filed to run for Senate as a Democratic candidate in Maryland, but such a run subjects Manning to prosecution for violating Pentagon regulations on political activities, according to former military lawyers.

Manning, the transgender soldier who spent seven years in prison for leaking more than 700,000 sensitive documents to WikiLeaks, recently filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission and is seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for the Senate seat in Maryland currently occupied by Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, a two-term senator.

In a Thursday tweet, Manning posted a certificate of candidacy obtained from the Maryland State Board of Elections, an important and required step in the process of running for Senate. One of the lines of the certificate states: “I am a registered voter and a citizen of Maryland and meet all other requirements for the above listed office.”

The website of the state board shows that Manning filed in Annapolis on Thursday…

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During his first full year in office, President Trump delivered on his campaign promise to limit refugee admissions to the United States from countries that are known hotbeds of terrorism.

Overall, refugee admissions during the 365 full days since his inauguration at noon on January 20, 2017 have declined by 70 percent from the previous complete calendar year under the Obama administration.

From January 21, 2017 to January 20, 2018 (Trump Calendar Year 2017), a total of 29,620 refugees have been admitted to the United States, according to the State Department’s wrapsnet.org website, the source of the refugee admissions data used in this story…

China has had its share of ponzi-like investment scheme blow ups in the past, most recently last April as we described in “Investors Rage After 3 Billion Yuan Vanish From China’s Largest Private Bank” and previously in “Chinese Investors Find Out They Got Fleeced By A $7 Billion Ponzi Scheme.” But nothing quite like this, and no, it does not involve cryptocurrencies.

According to the Asia Times, at the height of its business operations, online investment company, Qbao.com, had around 200 million registered users. With its “get rich quick” promises and tantalizing tales of up 80% returns, the company had a cult-like following with investors known as Baofen or fans of Qbao, not to mention potential clients clamoring to sign up for the financial firm’s products, leading to as many as 2 million new users every day in late 2017.

Even the full name of the company, Qianbao, had the veneer of success, as it translates into “money treasure.”

Unfortunately for up to 200 millions ordinary Chinese, dreams of overnight riches became a nightmare…

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The FBI “failed to preserve” five months worth of text messages exchanged between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, the two FBI employees who made pro-Clinton and anti-Trump comments while working on the Clinton email and the Russia collusion investigations.

The disclosure was made Friday in a letter sent by the Justice Department to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC).

“The Department wants to bring to your attention that the FBI’s technical system for retaining text messages sent and received on FBI mobile devices failed to preserve text messages for Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page,” Stephen Boyd, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs at the Justice Department, wrote to Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, the chairman of HSGAC…

Arab Israeli lawmakers will boycott Mike Pence’s speech to the Knesset, with the head of a coalition of Arab parties saying Saturday that the US vice president is “dangerous” and has a “messianic vision” that threatens the region.

Pence landed in Egypt Saturday to kick off a Middle East trip that will also include stops in Jordan and Israel, after canceling a December visit due to the passage of US tax reform.

Ahead of his arrival, Joint (Arab) List leader Ayman Odeh said MKs in his party would not attend Pence’s Knesset speech due to US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

In a Twitter post Saturday, Odeh said his party would go through with an earlier promise to skip Pence’s address to the Knesset plenum.

“[Pence] is a dangerous man with a messianic vision that includes the destruction of the entire region,” he also said…

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Tnuza Jamal Hassan, 19, of Minneapolis, was arrested this week after starting six to eight fires at St. Catherine University in Minneapolis.

Hassan told police, “You guys are lucky that l don’t know how to build a bomb because l would have done that.”

The Star Tribune reported:

A former St. Catherine University student charged with setting fires on the college’s St. Paul campus told police she did it because she’d “been reading about the U.S. military destroying schools in Iraq or Afghanistan and she felt that she should do exactly the same thing,” according to a criminal complaint filed Friday…

Turkish troops and Syrian opposition forces attacked a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria on Sunday in their bid to drive a U.S.-allied Kurdish militia from the region.

Turkish officials said the troops entered Afrin a day after dozens of Turkish jets and artillery units at the border pounded Syrian Kurdish targets. A spokesman for the Kurdish fighters said the attack was repelled.

Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, a terror organization and a security threat because of its affiliation to Kurdish rebels fighting in southeastern Turkey.

The group controls Afrin, in Syria’s northwestern Aleppo province, as well as a swath of territory to the east along Turkey’s border. The YPG also forms the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main U.S. ally against the Islamic State group in Syria.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said the Turkish-backed fighters had penetrated 5 kilometers (3 miles) into Afrin as part of the offensive, codenamed Olive Branch…

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Democrats are “complicit” in illegal immigrant violent crime and murder so long as they continue blocking funding for a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and hold up negotiations on pro-American immigration reforms, President Trump’s new campaign ad states.

The ad was released a day after Senate Democrats voted to shut down the federal government because the spending bill to keep the government open did not include amnesty for at least 3.5 million illegal aliens, as Breitbart News reported.

Luis Bracamontes, a 37-year-old illegal alien from Mexico who allegedly shot and killed Detective Michael Davis and Deputy Sheriff Danny Oliver in October 2017, is featured in the ad, saying in the courtroom during his murder trial that he wished he “had killed more of the motherf*ckers.”…

A single blood test detects cancers with up to 98 percent accuracy in patients without any symptoms, new research suggests. The assessment, known as CancerSEEK, picks up on DNA shed by mutating cells into the blood. The test can diagnose at least eight different types of cancer from ovarian to breast.

Although the test’s accuracy varies according to the type of cancer, it averages at around 70 percent, which is better than any available early-diagnosis method, according to the researchers.

It is also able to detect the origins in around 80 percent of cases, the study found. If given as part of a routine-screening programme, the researchers believe the test could catch tumors early, maximizing patients’ chances of surviving.

Study author Professor Bert Vogelstein from John Hopkins University, said: ‘This test represents the next step in changing the focus of cancer research from late-stage disease to early disease, which I believe will be critical to reducing cancer deaths in the long term.’…

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There is a growing consensus among many observers in Washington that the national security agencies have become completely politicized over the past seventeen years and are now pursuing selfish agendas that actually endanger what remains of American democracy.

As Philip Giraldi notes, up until recently it has been habitual to refer to such activity as the Deep State, which is perhaps equivalent to the Establishment in that it includes financial services, the media, major foundations and constituencies, as well as lobbying groups, but we are now witnessing an evolutionary process in which the national security regime is exercising power independently.

Nowhere is that “independence” of the ‘state within a state’ more evident than in the blatant and egregious news this week that The National Security Agency destroyed surveillance data it pledged to preserve…

The Department of Justice filed a notice of intent on Friday to re-try Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and co-defendant Dr. Salomon Melgen on public corruption charges. The notice, which was filed with a federal court in the District of New Jersey, was only four sentences long:

The United States files this notice of intent to retry the defendants and requests that the Court set the case for retrial at the earliest possible date. Defendants Robert Menendez and Salomon Melgen have been indicted for bribery and corruption by two separate grand juries properly empaneled in the District of New Jersey.

The first trial ended in a mistrial with a deadlocked jury. An early retrial date is in the best interests of the public, and the United States is available to schedule a retrial at the Court’s earliest convenience.

The notice of intent to retry was signed by Annalou Tirol, acting chief of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Unit…

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Tom Petty’s family says his death last year was due to an accidental drug overdose.

His wife and daughter released the results of Petty’s autopsy via a statement on his Facebook page Friday night. Dana and Adria Petty say they got the results from the coroner’s office earlier in the day that the overdose was caused due to a variety of medications.

The statement was posted moments before the Los Angeles coroner’s office issued its official findings, which confirmed that Petty had a variety of medications, including fentanyl and oxycodone in his system.

They say Petty suffered from emphysema, a fractured hip and knee problems that caused him pain but he was still committed to touring…

“It’s been four months, as you said, the man’s dead, they said he’s a lone gunman, lone shooter, yet we can’t get the autopsy results,” Perry continued.

“But even more troubling than that, I’ve been made aware of what I believe to be credible evidence, credible information, regarding terrorist infiltration through the southern border regarding this incident,” he said.

Perry did not share what information he was privy to, but said the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) warned multiple times last year it would attack Las Vegas, then took credit for the attack…

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Recent assaults by tactical teams on prototypes of President Trump’s proposed wall with Mexico indicate their imposing heights should stop border crossers, a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the rigorous assessment told The Associated Press.

Military special forces based in Florida and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) special units spent three weeks trying to breach and scale the eight models in San Diego, using jackhammers, saws, torches and other tools and climbing devices, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not authorized for public release.

A CBP report on the tests identifies strengths and flaws of each design but does not pick an overall winner or rank them…

Illinois State University will be holding a two-day conference next month devoted to microaggressions in the age of President Donald Trump.

ISU will be hosting “Social, Ethnic, and Racial Boundaries on Campus and Community in the 21st Century: Microaggressions in Everyday Life,” at the Bone Student Center over the weekend of Feb. 9, free and open to the campus and local community.

The theme of Friday‘s session is titled “Race and Immigration Under the Trump Administration” and Saturday will examine “Microaggressions in Everyday Life.”

The topics will include lectures on how a microaggression is different from racism, sexism, and age-segregation; the social, emotional, and academic cost of campus microaggressions; microaggressions in the classroom; and how to integrate diversity into curriculum, so all students learn about power, privilege, and equity in the United States.

Yolanda Flores Niemann, a psychology professor at the University of North Texas, will deliver the keynote address…

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President Trump Friday became the first sitting president to address the pro-life March for Life, which was holding its 45th event since the creation by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 of the right to abortion in its Roe v. Wade decision.

He was speaking to a crowd at the Rose Garden at the White House, but his remarks were broadcast to the nearby National Mall, where an estimated 100,000 gathered to mark and mourn the advent of legalized abortion in America. Since 1973, abortion has killed an estimated 60 million unborn children.

Pro-life efforts are gaining momentum in the Trump era, with congressional plans to eliminate the roughly half a billion dollars that American taxpayers give annually to the abortion industry’s leading player, Planned Parenthood…

Shoppers at Whole Foods Markets across the U.S. have been astonished to discover empty shelves at their local stores in recent months, with one customer describing the stores as “the Soviet Safeway.” Barclay analysts found stores in disarray with “entirely empty” shelves and deteriorating produce, Business Insider reported.

“Analysts said they encountered ‘high’ out-of-stock issues last week in every department of one Midwest store across both private-label items and branded items,” according to the report. One East Coast store had “extraordinary” inventory problems, according to the analyst.

“The store had no bananas and the supply of eggs and Tropicana products was very low,” the analyst reported. “Entire displays, refrigerated cases, and end caps were completely empty. The prepared foods hot bar was entirely empty.”

This follows a December story that found dozens of shoppers reporting “bruised, discolored, tasteless, and rotten produce in Whole Foods stores from California to New York over the past couple of months.”…

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The House Intel panel’s passage of New York Republican Rep. Peter King’s motion to release the FISA abuse memo to fellow House members has rocked Washington, D.C.

Lawmakers from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) have called for the classified memo’s immediate release. According to Fox News contributor Sara Carter, the contents of the memo are so “explosive,” that it could end special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe once and for all.

Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino warned the release of the FISA report will destroy the image of his former boss Barack Obama.

Following the unsealing of documents that indicate Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock had help in the deadly shooting that took place on October 1, 2017, Las Vegas Metro Police (LVMPD) have said they would not be releasing information they have withheld, including video of Paddock in the Mandalay Bay Hotel because there is an ongoing investigation and suspects are still being investigated with possible charges to be filed.

In the previous report, we saw that Paddock’s girlfriend, Mari Lou Danley, is still considered a suspect and at least one other person, according to the documents.

On Tuesday, in a district courtroom, this was all confirmed by attornies for LVMPD when questioned by an attorney for several media outlets who wanted information to be released.

LVMPD attorney Nick Crosby told District Court Judge Elissa Cadish that the information simply could not be released at this time due to an investigation that might lead to charges.

“Without naming names, there are potential charges against other people…

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U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos gave a far-ranging speech today in Washington at an American Enterprise Institute conference, “Bush-Obama School Reform: Lessons Learned.”

She announced the death of Common Core, at least in her federal agency.

DeVos also decried the federal government’s initiatives to improve education. “We saw two presidents from different political parties and philosophies take two different approaches. Federally mandated assessments. Federal money. Federal standards. All originated in Washington, and none solved the problem. Too many of America’s students are still unprepared,” she said.

A man accused of an “unprovoked and brutal stabbing” at a market in California last month is an illegal immigrant with a criminal record who had been previously deported seven times, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman told Fox News.

Ricardo Velasquez-Romero, 39, who also goes by the name Eulalio Miniz Orozco, was arrested last month after local police say he stabbed a 61-year-old man in the neck at Lola’s Market in Santa Rosa on Dec. 21.

Department of Homeland Security databases indicate Velasquez-Romero “has been repatriated to his native Mexico seven times since 2007,” a spokesman for ICE said.

“Records indicate Mr. Velasquez also has multiple prior criminal convictions, including those from felony drug and weapons charges,” said James Schwab, a spokesman in San Francisco for ICE.

Schwab said ICE has placed a detainer on the suspect with the Sonoma County Jail, indicating a desire to take custody of him when released from local custody…

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With movie attendance dropping to a 24-year low, there was no good news for the film business in 2017. For two decades, the movie business has not been a growth business. This year might be remembered as the year the film business finally began to contract.

Hollywood will try and hide behind the fact that this is the third year in a row that ticket sales have grossed $11 billion in North America, but that is all glitter. To begin with, ticket prices had to increase by nearly 4 percent in just one year to reach that number.

Moreover, 20 years ago the average production cost of a movie was $29 million. In 2002, that jumped to $59 million. Today, marketing alone – this does not even include production – can hit $200 million…

On Thursday morning, Amazon announced that it had reviewed 238 proposals from across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to host HQ2, the company’s second headquarters in North America, and has has chosen the following 20 metropolitan areas to move to the next phase of the process (in alphabetical order):

“Why should your right to freedom of speech trump a trans person’s right not to be offended?” asked Newman.

“Because in order to be able to think, you have to risk being offensive,” Peterson said. “I mean, look at the conversation we’re having right now. You’re certainly willing to risk offending me in the pursuit of truth. Why should you have the right to do that? It’s been rather uncomfortable.”…

India on Thursday morning successfully conducted the “first pre-induction trial” of its over 5,000-km range Agni-V intercontinental ballistic missile, which brings the whole of Asia and China as well parts of Europe and Africa within its nuclear strike envelope.

Sources said the country’s most formidable missile will undergo one more such pre-induction trial “within this year” before it is inducted into the Agni-V regiment already raised by the tri-Service Strategic Forces Command (SFC) with the requisite command and control structures.

Once that happens, India will gate-crash into the super-exclusive club of countries with ICBMs (missiles with a range of over 5,000-5,500km) like the U.S., Russia, China, France and the UK. While a belligerent North Korea over the last six-seven month has rattled the U.S. with tests of its two new ICBMs, Hwasong-14 and Hwasong-15, expert opinion is still divided whether they are fully-operational and deployed as of now.

India, of course, wants a credible strategic deterrent against an aggressive and expansionist China…

Like this:

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President Donald Trump unveiled his fake news awards Wednesday night with four prizes to CNN, two to The New York Times and one each for ABC News, Newsweek, Time magazine, and The Washington Post.

The awards to CNN included falsely reporting “that candidate Donald Trump and his son Donald J. Trump, Jr. had access to hacked documents from WikiLeaks,” along with editing “a video to make it appear President Trump defiantly overfed fish during a visit with the Japanese prime minister. Japanese prime minister actually led the way with the feeding.”

The other two awards to CNN were for retracting a story about Anthony Scaramucci and reporting that “former FBI Director James Comey would dispute President Trump’s claim that he was told he is not under investigation.”…

The number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level since Richard Nixon was president.

THE NUMBERS: The Labor Department said Thursday that claims for jobless aid dropped by 22,000 to 222,000, fewest since March 1973. The less volatile four-week average slid by 9,500 to 248,250, lowest since late August.

The overall number of Americans collecting unemployment checks dropped to 1.89 million, lowest since December 1973 and down nearly 9 percent from a year ago.

THE TAKEAWAY: Unemployment claims are a proxy for layoffs. The low level suggests that employers are confident enough in the economy to hold onto workers.

The unemployment rate last month hit a 16-year low 4.2 percent. Employers cut 33,000 jobs in September – the first monthly drop in nearly seven years – but only because Hurricanes Harvey and Irma rattled the economies of Texas and Florida; hiring is expected to bounce back…

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The FBI has asked retired Australian policeman-turned investigative journalist, Michael Smith, to provide information he has gathered detailing multiple allegations of the Clinton Foundation receiving tens of millions of mishandled taxpayer funds, according to LifeZette.

“I have been asked to provide the FBI with further and better particulars about allegations regarding improper donations to the CF funded by Australian taxpayers,” Smith told LifeZette.

Of note, the Clinton Foundation received some $88 million from Australian taxpayers between 2006 and 2014, reaching its peak in 2012-2013 – which was coincidentally (we’re sure) Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s last year in office.

Smith names several key figures in his complaints of malfeasance, including Bill and Hillary Clinton…

An illegal immigrant began his murder trial for the 2014 killings of two Northern California sheriff’s deputies on Tuesday with a profanity-laced rant, calling a partner of one of the slain officers a “coward.”

Prosecutor Rod Norgaard recounted the events that led to the death of Sheriff’s Deputy Danny Oliver outside a Sacramento motel in October 2014, and described how Oliver’s partner, Deputy Scott Brown, was able to retreat from the heavy gunfire.

Luis Enrique Monroy Bracamontes, 37, the alleged killer, interrupted the court when he grinned and called Brown a “coward.”

Bracamontes was scolded by the Sacramento Superior Court judge, The Sacramento Bee reported.

“I wish I had killed more of the mother——s,” Bracamontes told the court. He continued: “I will break out soon and I will kill more, kill whoever gets in front of me. There’s no need for a f—ing trial.”…

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Apple announced in a press release on Wednesday that the company will be investing $350 billion into the U.S. economy over the next five years.

According to a press release, Apple plans to create 20,000 new jobs in the United States over the next five years thanks to a $350 billion capital investment.

Combining new investments and Apple’s current pace of spending with domestic suppliers and manufacturers – an estimated $55 billion for 2018 – Apple’s direct contribution to the US economy will be more than $350 billion over the next five years, not including Apple’s ongoing tax payments, the tax revenues generated from employees’ wages and the sale of Apple products…

The first Somali person to become a police officer in Maine was arrested Saturday night for disrupting a concert and heads to court Wednesday to face multiple charges for her behavior.

The 24-year-old police officer, Zahra Munye Abu, was arrested Saturday night at Palladium Nightclub in Worcester, Mass., for assault and battery and was charged with three other counts of misdemeanor, according to the Portland Press Herald. Abu was bailed out of jail at 1 a.m. Sunday, but the bail amount has not been disclosed.

“She was (given) several opportunities to leave and refused. Eventually she was placed under arrest,” Worcester police Sgt. Kerry F. Hazelhurst said.

Abu, who previously served the city of Portland as an officer, has been put on paid administrative leave until the court resolves her case, according to Portland Police Chief, Michael Sauschuck. “The Portland Police Department was notified late Saturday night of the arrest of Police Officer Zahra Abu in Worcester, Massachusetts,” Sauschuck said, the Portland Press Herald reports…

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Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen confirmed Tuesday that her department has asked federal prosecutors to see if they can lodge criminal charges against sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with federal deportation efforts.

“The Department of Justice is reviewing what avenues may be available,” Ms. Nielsen told the Senate Judiciary Committee. Her confirmation came after California’s new sanctuary law went into effect Jan. 1, severely restricting cooperation the state or any of its localities could offer.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan says those policies put his officers and local communities at more risk because they have to arrest illegal immigrants out in the community…

DACA-aged illegals commit crimes at twice the rate of young Americans, says a comprehensive summary of crimes and convictions in Arizona during the past 32 years.

The report punctures claims by pro-amnesty advocates that young ‘dreamer’ illegals are vital to U.S. industry and civic life, and indicate that any amnesty will ensure that many more crimes – including murders and rapes – will be inflicted against Americans and legal immigrants, including Hispanics and blacks.

The report says:

Unfortunately, if the goal of DACA is to give citizenship to a particularly law-abiding group of undocumented immigrants, it is accomplishing the opposite of what was intended. As Table 8 shows, DACA age eligible undocumented immigrants are 250% more likely to be convicted of crimes than their share of the population. Those too old for DACA status are convicted at a relatively low rates (45.7% more than their share of the Arizona population)…

If there’s any one state in this august union that could be properly termed socialist, California would certainly be in the running.

After all, the Golden State is where taxes are high, the so-called “safety net” is wide, economic growth is low and anyone who disagrees with leftist orthodoxy is chased off of state-run college campuses.

Well, if you want to call California socialist, all we can say is this: We’ve seen the future, and it doesn’t work. If you don’t believe me, take a look at this video showing the homelessness in Orange County, California. It’s a 10-minute bike ride through one of the largest shantytowns in America:.

To gain power, totalitarian movements always portray themselves as victims. And while they are in the process of abusing, they cry in front of the world posing as the abused. They stage “hate-crime” attacks against themselves because hate crimes are their political and cultural capital. When those hate-crimes don’t exist, they must be invented.

We are witnessing precisely this phenomenon at this very moment in regards to the myriad hoax “hate-crimes” that anti-Trump forces are manufacturing out of thin air and blaming on Trump supporters. The media are bolstering the entire hallucination process, with CNN leading the way.

Central to the whole narrative is the supposed “Islamophobic” anti-Muslim crime-wave sweeping the nation. The rumors spread and the media regurgitates the lies without any evidence to back them up. And then, after the hoaxes are debunked one by one, the media is, by that time, bored and no longer interested…

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Members of the U.S. military will receive their biggest pay increase in eight years this month. President Donald Trump approved the pay rise of 2.4 percent for uniformed service members, and 1.9 percent for federal workers, in an executive order on Dec. 22.

The pay is an increase from the 2.1 percent increase the military service members received in 2017, and the biggest since 2010 when they received a 3.4 percent increase. The pay increase had been included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which Trump signed on Dec. 12.

The act saw an overall increase in military spending and the acquisition of new defense equipment. Among the budgeted expenses are F-35 Joint Strike fighters, ground combat vehicles, and Virginia-class submarines…

House Republicans set a new fundraising record ahead of the 2018 midterms as the GOP is set on maintaining a majority in Congress. The National Republican Congressional Committee, or NRCC, raised a whopping $85 million ahead of this year’s midterm elections.

The NRCC said their 2017 fundraising exceeds the previous record set in 2003 by over $12 million. The committee currently has almost $44 million cash in hand.

The GOP is heading into midterm elections with its ‘Great American Comeback’ campaign, bringing back opportunity and economic prosperity for the middle class.

“Businesses staying here, businesses expanding, businesses investing in capital, workers getting wage increases, workers getting bonuses, better benefits, 401K’s, maternity leave, all of those kinds of things are now being announced and it’s only been 20 days,” said Speaker Paul Ryan on the Trump administration’s recent successes following the GOP tax bill.

Overall, RNC fundraising is forecast to hit a record $130 million for the past year…

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During the Obama administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement was not following proper procedures when checking if illegal aliens were known terrorists, jeopardizing national security, according to an audit.

The office of inspector general found that between 2013 and 2015, ICE was not screening illegal immigrants who had been released for terrorist ties. Every single case of a suspected terrorist reviewed by the inspector general included errors, where ICE officials were not in compliance with security standards.

The U.S. is planning to develop two new nuclear weapons, including a “low yield” warhead, according to a Wall Street Journal report. That low-yield warhead would be used with the Trident missile, a rocket deployed on U.S. Navy submarines, according to the Journal.

The Pentagon is also planning to develop a new nuclear-armed cruise missile that would also be deployed at sea. That plan would reintroduce a system to the U.S. nuclear arsenal that was retired in 2010. The recommendations for the new weapons are laid out in the Pentagon’s Nuclear Posture Review, which was commissioned last year by President Trump.

HuffPost published an unclassified draft copy of the review last week, though the Pentagon has said that the draft is “pre-decisional.”

Still, the plans to develop the new nuclear weapons come in response to growing military threats from Russia and China, which the Pentagon says are moving toward an embrace of nuclear weapons in their strategies…

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Two new polls show President Donald Trump’s rising support among black voters, highlighting his political gains from pushing employers to hire Americans instead of lower-wage migrants.

The growing support from blacks – despite furious Democratic claims of racism – could become a shocking political validation in November when Trump will face millions of upper-income Democratic voters who are angry at his “Buy American, Hire American” policies.

Among black men, Trump’s “2017 average approval rating significantly exceeds his 2016 vote share,” admitted a January 11 article in the Atlantic by author Ronald Brownstein. “23 percent of black men approved of Trump’s performance versus 11 percent of black women,” said the article…

On Tuesday, Palestinians attempted to bomb Joseph’s Tomb, considered Judaism’s third holiest site, during a visit there earlier today by about 1,000 Jewish pilgrims.

The Times of Israel reports:

Army sappers detonated a cellphone-operated explosive device that was apparently planted by Palestinians at the entrance to the Joseph’s Tomb holy site in the city of Nablus early Tuesday morning, ahead of a visit by approximately 1,000 Jewish worshipers, the army said.

There were no injuries or significant damage caused by the controlled blast, and the pilgrimage to the shrine continued as planned, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said.

The 1,000 or so worshipers were escorted to Joseph’s Tomb – believed to be the burial site of the biblical patriarch – by IDF soldiers, border guards and Israel Police officers, the army said. According to the military, as the group was leaving the area, local residents began to throw rocks at the troops and the buses, causing no injuries…

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The Dow Jones industrial average crossed the 26,000 point milestone at the opening bell on Tuesday, in a record-setting seven sessions.

The latest 1,000 point milestone move broke the previous record of 23 sessions when the Dow moved from 24,000 to 25,000 points.

The U.S. stock and bond markets were closed on Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, though stock market index futures gained. On Tuesday, a big chunk of the Dow’s gains could be attributed to UnitedHealth Group (UNH) which was surging in the pre-market session after a big earnings and revenue beat.

On Friday, stocks booked their second-straight week of gains and ended at record levels…

An excellent op-ed in the L.A. Times today by Kerry Jackson is on why California – with its liberal politics and generous welfare system – is the “poverty capital of America.”

According to the Census Bureau, one out of five California residents is poor. This despite the state’s per capita GDP rising twice as fast in the last five years as the national average. From 1992 to 2015, state and local governments spent nearly $1 trillion to help the poor. The state, with 12% of the American population, is home today to about one in three of the nation’s welfare recipients.

Jackson then reaches the not so astonishing conclusion: “The generous spending, then, has not only failed to decrease poverty; it actually seems to have made it worse.”

One of the big reasons for this is the total lack of welfare reform that would require those receiving government assistance to work.

The state and local bureaucracies that implement California’s antipoverty programs, however, resisted pro-work reforms…

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Project Veritas has released undercover footage of Twitter Engineers and employees admitting that Twitter employees view all of your private messages on their servers and analyze it to create a “virtual profile” of you which they sell to advertisers.

Haynes, who was featured in part one of the Twitter exposé, admitted in a January 6, 2018 meeting that Twitter has hired hundreds employees with the express purpose of looking at these “d*ck pics,” stating:

“There’s teams dedicated to it. I mean, we’re talking, we’re talking three or four – at least, three or four hundred people. Yes, they’re paid to look at d*ck pics.”…

In yet another instance of our broken immigration system failing Americans, an illegal alien who allegedly threatened to kill passengers recently on a Greyhound bus and led police on a chase from Wisconsin to Illinois has been revealed to be a multiple-deportee.

Fox News reports that Margarito Vargas-Rosas, 33, was in the U.S. illegally and had been returned to Mexico the previous five times that Border Patrol agents encountered him in the U.S.

Last Friday night someone aboard a Greyhound bus alerted police that another passenger – Vargas-Rosas of Chicago – was pacing the aisle toward the back of the bus, threatening to kill people. He reportedly appeared to pull what passengers thought was a weapon from his waistband.

Milwaukee and Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office Deputies attempted to pull the bus over, but Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling said the confused bus driver “thought it was a training exercise by law enforcement.”…

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An 11-year-old Toronto girl who claimed she was attacked because of her hijab fabricated the story, according to local police.

The story of Kwalah Noman received international coverage last week after she and her family held a press conference calling for hate crime charges against a man she claimed attacked her on her way to school.

“I felt really scared and confused,” Noman said on Friday.

She told police that while she was walking to school with her brother, a man wearing a black hoodie approached her from behind, pulled her hijab from her jacket, and cut it with scissors.

“I screamed. The man just ran away. We followed this crowd of people to be safe. He came again…

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a 2014 Tennessee ballot amendment that removed the right to an abortion from the state constitution.

Amendment 1 won by a 53 percent margin. Eight voters had sought a recount. They won at the trial court level.

David Fowler of the Family Action Council of Tennessee hailed the decision. He said, “Today, by a 3-0 opinion, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the vote in 2014 by the people of Tennessee to amend their state Constitution to strip out a ‘right to abortion’ that our Tennessee Supreme Court found in our state Constitution back in 2000! To our knowledge, it is the first-ever vote in the United States to overturn a ‘constitutional right’ to abortion at the state level.

“This victory began 17 years ago this month when the first resolution that would become this constitutional amendment was filed. It took 10 years to get it through the legislative process. And it’s been tied up in court since November 2014…

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Chelsea Manning, the transgender former Army private who was convicted under the Espionage Act for stealing classified government documents, has filed to run for U.S. Senate in Maryland.

Manning filed papers with the Federal Election Commission on Jan. 5. She is challenging Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, a two-term Democrat who is up for re-election in November. The Washington Post first reported Manning’s filing.

Manning is running as a Democrat.

The 30-year old trans rights activist was released from federal prison last May after President Obama commuted a 35-year prison sentence she was serving for stealing classified government documents and providing them to WikiLeaks…

An 11-count indictment has been handed down from a grand jury investigating possible Russian bribery involving former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Uranium One deal negotiated when she was part of the Obama administration, a report says.

The indictment was levied against Maryland resident Mark Lambert, a former co-president of a nuclear transportation company involved in Hillary Clinton’s deal to sell U.S. uranium interests to a Russian company. A Department of Justice statement says that the 54-year-old Lambert was charged with “one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and to commit wire fraud, seven counts of violating the FCPA, two counts of wire fraud and one count of international promotion money laundering.”

The statement added:

The charges stem from an alleged scheme to bribe Vadim Mikerin, a Russian official at JSC Techsnabexport (TENEX), a subsidiary of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation…

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Keith Jackson, the man whose voice was synonymous with college football for generations of fans, died Friday night at age 89, according to his family.

Jackson’s broadcast career began at Washington State in 1952 when he called a game between Washington State and Stanford, but it was just the first of many stops for the legendary voice.

During his expansive career, Jackson also called the NFL, MLB, NBA, PGA Tour golf, the Olympics, boxing, racing and even some college basketball alongside Dick Vitale. He was the first play-by-play man of Monday Night Football and was the voice of some of the United States’ top Olympic moments, including calling Mark Spitz’s seven and Eric Heiden’s five gold medals…

A federal judge has ruled the FBI must turn over memos written by former FBI Director James Comey about a meeting with President Trump. The decision comes as a result of a lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, which has been seeking the documents for months.

The FBI has been ordered to turn over the documents by January 18, which is next week.

“The court, in seeking to review the documents, shows it doesn’t trust the FBI or Justice Department’s representations about the infamous Comey memos. We hope now that Americans are one step closer to knowing the facts about these memos, which were written and leaked for pernicious purposes to target a sitting president with a criminal investigation,”

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “It’s high time they begin to see the light of day. We’re glad the court followed up on our specific suggestion that it review the documents directly.”

Department of Justice attorneys, who are defending the FBI in the lawsuit, asked the court for the case to be dismissed…

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Hawaii emergency officials confirmed Saturday that an alert warning that a ballistic missile was inbound to the island was a mistake.

Earlier Saturday, Hawaiian citizens reported receiving an emergency alert on their phone that stated: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”

House Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, tweeted in regard to the alert: “HAWAII – THIS IS A FALSE ALARM. THERE IS NO INCOMING MISSILE TO HAWAII. I HAVE CONFIRMED WITH OFFICIALS THERE IS NO INCOMING MISSILE.”

Hawaii Emergency Management Agency tweeted that there was “NO missile threat” to the state…

We thought the Obama administration could stoop no lower when it was revealed that the administration transferred $1.7 billion in untraceable cash to the Islamic Republic as ransom for the release of four Americans hostages they were holding. We were wrong.

In its twilight weeks, the administration gave its consent to allow the Iranians to receive 116 metric tons of natural uranium from Russia as compensation for its export of tons of reactor coolant. According to experts familiar with the transaction, the uranium could be enriched to weapons-grade sufficient for the production of at least 10 nuclear bombs.

If you thought that the administration’s betrayal of America’s security could go no further, you were wrong. Last month Politico, not known as a bastion of conservatism, published a bombshell 50-page exposé detailing the Obama administration’s efforts to delay, hinder and ultimately shut down a highly successful DEA operation – codenamed Project Cassandra – aimed at tracking and thwarting Hezbollah drug trafficking, arms trafficking and money laundering schemes…

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House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes told Republican colleagues in two closed-door meetings this week he has seen evidence that shows clear “abuse” of government surveillance programs by FBI and Justice Department officials, according to three sources familiar with the conversations, raising more questions about whether the controversial anti-Trump dossier was used by the Obama administration to authorize surveillance of advisers to President Trump.

The California Republican made his comments in private meetings with GOP colleagues as he tried to round up votes in favor of renewing a key section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as Section 702, which eventually passed in the House on Thursday…

After several decades of nation-building and trillions of dollars missing or improperly recorded, the long-awaited audit of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has finally begun. On Wednesday, the Defense Department Comptroller David Norquist told lawmakers in Washington that the DoD’s first-ever department wide audit will cost about $367 million in 2018 and an additional $551 million to fix the problems.

Norquist, who testified before the House Armed Services Committee, said Defense Secretary James N. Mattis and Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan are in full support of the audit. Back in May 2017, President Trump appointed Norquist to finally put the military’s financial house back in order after many years of delays.

What is surprising, if only in retrospect, is that according to the World Economic Forum, U.S. Department of Defense has been named the largest employer in the world with some 3.2 million members on its payroll and $2.4 trillion in assets but has never administered a full audit…

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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said on Thursday it will shift production of Ram heavy-duty pickup trucks from Mexico to Michigan in 2020, a move that lowers the risk to the automaker’s profit should President Donald Trump pull the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Fiat Chrysler said it would create 2,500 jobs at a factory in Warren, Michigan, near Detroit and invest $1 billion in the facility. The Mexican plant will be “repurposed to produce future commercial vehicles” for sale global markets. Mexico has free trade agreements with numerous countries.

Fiat Chrysler Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne a year ago raised the possibility that the automaker would move production of its heavy-duty pickups to the United States…

A Democratic candidate running for Illinois attorney general was robbed at gunpoint Thursday during a campaign photoshoot in Chicago.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Aaron Goldstein, 42, and members of his campaign team were approached by three men in their early 20s. One of the men had a handgun and demanded Goldstein and the campaign aides turn over the camera equipment and other personal belongings, including their cell phones, which they did.

According to the Tribune, law enforcement sources confirmed that they had no one in custody and did not release a description of the suspects.

Goldstein’s campaign manager Robert Murphy, who was not with the candidate at the time, explained that he was taking promotional campaign photos with an “in-the-neighborhood kind of” message, according to the Tribune. The incident took place in Albany Park.

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President Donald Trump went to Walter Reed Military Hospital for a physical on Friday, before leaving town for the weekend to visit his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.

“The President’s physical exam today at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center went exceptionally well,” said Walter Reed physician Dr. Ronny Jackson in a short statement. “The President is in excellent health.”

Jackson has served as the White House physician for three presidents – George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and now Donald Trump.

The examination includes basic blood tests, vitamin levels, heart rate, pulse, and blood pressure as well as examinations of the ears, nose, throat, and neck…

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, donated $33 million to fund scholarships for 1,000 undocumented immigrant high school graduates to go to college.

The money will go to TheDream.US, a nonprofit that has been helping send such kids, known as the dreamers, go to college. The group is already funding scholarships for almost 3,000 kids currently in college, with backing from the foundations of other techies, including Bill and Melinda Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, and Pierre and Pam Omidyar.

Bezos said his father immigrated to the United States at age 16 from Cuba. “He landed in this country alone and unable to speak English,” Bezos said in a statement. “With a lot of grit and determination – and the help of some remarkable organizations in Delaware – my dad became an outstanding citizen, and he continues to give back to the country that he feels blessed him in so many ways. MacKenzie and I are honored to be able to help today’s Dreamers by funding these scholarships.”…

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Starving Venezuelans desperate for food reportedly mobbed a field and slaughtered cattle — a stunning illustration of the socialist country’s troubles.

Venezuela has been going through a four-year recession, leaving millions of Venezuelans poor and forcing citizens to succumb to desperate measures. Western Venezuela has experienced two days of protests and looting due to food shortages that have left at least three people dead and 16 others injured.

The mayor of Arapuey in the state of Merida told El Universal newspaper the dead include a 17-year-old shot during a demonstration Wednesday and two others hit by gunfire Thursday at a business where people had formed a line for food…

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) bagged the senior MS-13 leader for the Northeast U.S. along with 11 other high-ranking members of the gang in a Thursday crackdown operation, the New York Post reported.

The 17 defendants – five of whom are not MS-13 members – are facing charges including second-degree murder, drug trafficking, and conspiracy. They face up to 25 years in prison if convicted, the Post reported Thursday. The unnamed Long Island-based leader operated two cells, code-named “Hollywood” and “Sailors.” He reported and transferred proceeds directly to MS-13 heads in El Salvador, according to the DEA.

“It started as a small-scale drug investigation on Long Island, a DEA investigation which is still growing, and as it went along and we brought other agencies on, we saw a violent threat that pushed us to get even more agencies involved and eventually apprehend this regional leader of MS-13,” DEA Special Agent in Charge James Hunt said in a statement…

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Former and current Twitter employees are caught on camera admitting they censor political views they disagree with – without the censored users even realizing it.

In the second undercover video in three days, Project Veritas has continued to expose Twitter as part of the “American Pravda.” While the first video showed a senior engineer at Twitter saying that the company is “more than happy to help the Department of Justice with their little investigation” into President Trump, this video helps explain why that may be.

The new hidden camera video – published Thursday – features “nine current and former Twitter employees” admitting to “steps the social media giant is taking to censor political content that they don’t like,” according to Project Veritas…

The Trump administration told U.S. states on Thursday they can for the first time move toward imposing work or job training requirements on people as a condition for obtaining health insurance under the Medicaid government program for the poor.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued guidance making it easier for states to design and propose test programs that implement such requirements. States must propose such changes through waivers and receive federal approval.

Democrats and health advocacy groups blasted the policy and said it would make it more difficult for the most vulnerable Americans to have access to healthcare services. The Southern Poverty Law Center liberal advocacy group said it plans to file a legal challenge against the administration.

Medicaid, an important social safety net program created five decades ago and expanded under Republican President Donald Trump’s Democratic predecessor Barack Obama, has never had such conditions attached…

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The total number of workers who receive unemployment insurance fell to the lowest level in 44 years at the end 2017, the Department of Labor (DOL) reported Thursday.

During the last week of 2017, 1.87 million people received unemployment insurance benefits, the lowest total of recipients since Dec. 1973, the DOL reported. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.3 percent for at the end of January.

The number is a positive sign for the economy.

The total number of people claiming unemployment benefits in the U.S. has continued to decline since President Donald Trump took office. During the last week of April 2017, 1.9 million people received unemployment insurance benefits…

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) announced Wednesday that he will not seek reelection this year, increasing Democrats’ chances of flipping his swing district in their favor.

Issa barely won reelection in 2016 by just over half a percentage point in a San Diego-area district that went for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton by about 7 points.

“Throughout my service, I worked hard and never lost sight of the people our government is supposed to serve. Yet with the support of my family, I have decided that I will not seek re-election in California’s 49th District,” Issa said in a statement.

The former House Oversight Committee chairman faced a tough path to reelection in an increasingly Democratic district. The lack of a 17-year incumbent will now make it easier for Democrats to win the district as they seek to win back the House this year.

Issa’s retirement offers yet another boon to House Democrats in California over the last three days…

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The founders of the controversial opposition research firm Fusion GPS admitted that they helped the researcher hired to compile the infamous, largely discredited 35-page dossier on President Donald Trump to share the document with Sen. John McCain.

The goal of providing the dossier to McCain, the Fusion GPS founders explained, was to pass the information contained in the questionable document to the U.S. intelligence community under the Obama administration.

The disclosure raises questions about whether McCain knew that the information he delivered to the intelligence community was actually an opposition document reportedly funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee…

President Trump on Wednesday said a decision by a federal judge in California to prevent the government from winding down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program shows exactly what’s wrong with the U.S. court system.

“It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is when the opposing side in a case (such as DACA) always runs to the 9th Circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts,” Trump tweeted.

Trump was reacting to a decision from U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who is based in San Francisco, which said officials can’t start unwinding DACA while Trump’s decision to take that path is being challenged in court. The Trump administration has said it would challenge Alsup’s ruling.

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Michael Wolff admitted Monday that he did not interview Vice President Mike Pence or any Cabinet members, though some of the more incendiary claims in his book “Fire and Fury” are credited to Cabinet members. The book is dominating the news cycle and claims to portray life “inside the Trump White House.” He made the admission on “CBS This Morning.”

As CNBC reporter John Harwood put it, many of President Donald Trump’s top officials are reported to have said particularly nasty things about the president. But Wolff admitted to not interviewing any of them for the book.

“Did you speak to any members of the president’s Cabinet for this book?” CBS host Norah O’Donnell, asked him. Wolff responded, “I did not.”…

On the heels of companies dishing bonuses of up to $3,000 to over one million workers due to the anticipated benefit of President Trump’s tax reform victory, several major utilities have announced plans to cut rates in a consumer payback related to the lower taxes.

Energy suppliers like Washington’s Pepco, Baltimore Gas and Light, Pacific Power, Rocky Mountain Power and Commonwealth Edison said they plan to give hundreds of thousands of customers a rate cut due to the tax reform.

The taxpayer advocate group Americans for Tax Reform is pulling together the list of utilities expected to apply for a rate cut as it has for more than 100 major firms planning to pay out bonuses, higher wages and increased benefits due to the expected windfall they plan to receive when corporate taxes are cut.

In one announcement typical of those from the utilities sharing their tax benefits, Pacific Power said, “The benefit of this tax cut should be passed on to our customers – and we will work with our regulators and stakeholders on the best way to do that.”…

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A prisoner in Spain who was certified “dead” by three doctors was suddenly heard snoring in his body bag just hours before he was scheduled to be cut open for his post-mortem examination Sunday.

Gonzalo Montoya Jimenez, 29, is an inmate at a jail in Asturias. Guards had reported him dead in his prison cell after they found him slumped and unconscious, Sky News reported. Jimenez reportedly became ill at Asturias Central Penitentiary the day before his “death” and so-called “resurrection.”

Authorities were so certain Jimenez was dead, his body was placed in a body bag after three doctors signed off on his “death.” Then Jimenez was shipped to a mortuary…

Google, the most powerful search engine in the world, is now displaying fact checks for conservative publications in its results. No prominent liberal site receives the same treatment.

And not only is Google’s fact-checking highly partisan – perhaps reflecting the sentiments of its leaders – it is also blatantly wrong, asserting sites made “claims” they demonstrably never made.

When searching for a media outlet that leans right, like The Daily Caller (TheDC), Google gives users details on the sidebar, including what topics the site typically writes about, as well as a section titled “Reviewed Claims.”

Vox, and other left-wing outlets and blogs like Gizmodo, are not given the same fact-check treatment. When searching their names, a “Topics they write about” section appears, but there are no “Reviewed Claims.”

In fact, a review of mainstream outlets shows that only conservative sites feature the highly misleading, subjective analysis….

The annual CES gadget show kicks off in Las Vegas this week, as over 4,000 technology companies from around the world converge to showcase their wares to over 170,000 people during a week of of drinking, gambling and hardcore nerding out.

And while some attendees surely plan to indulge in any one of Vegas’s many strip clubs to blow off some steam thinking about Intel’s hot new 8th generation Core processors, CES participants (with badge) can take a free Tesla ride over to Saphire and partition their hard-drives to the gyrations of “R2 Double D” and “Triple CPU,” a pair of non-judgmental “fully animated electronic twins” who hope you don’t mind silicon implants.

The pair was unveiled with much pump and circumstance the night before CES officially kicks off – showcasing their sexy CCTV camera heads and moves to match.

And in case anyone is vacillating between silicon or silicone, R2-DD and Triple-CPU were pitted against human strippers during a Monday night preview party…

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New York State Assemblywoman Pamela Harris has been indicted on 11 counts of fraud and tampering, accused of defrauding numerous federal and local government entities.

The indictments include two counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, four counts of making false statements, two counts of bankruptcy fraud, and one count of witness tampering and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, CBS New York reported.

Harris is accused of defrauding the New York City Council, the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the city’s Build it Back Program and U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York…

Prime Minister Thatcher once famously observed that socialists “always run out of other people’s money.” But what actually happens when socialism runs out of money?

Venezuela, a once wealthy nation with black gold coming out of the ground, is a test case.

The socialist regime ran out of other people’s money, and then out of money, years ago. The government met protests by its starving population with a 40% minimum wage hike. That’s the usual socialist solution to what leftists call ‘income inequality’. The problem is that 40% of nothing is still zero.

The “Strong Bolivar” introduced by former dictator Hugo Chavez, who died of an overdose of Cuba’s socialist medicine, leads the world in one economic category: a 3,000% inflation rate. Currently a dollar will buy you 111,413.23 bolivars. Wait a while and there will be a better bargain in bolivars because economists are forecasting a 30,000% inflation rate. In Venezuela, even the poorest American can become a millionaire in bolivars. The only question is why would anyone actually want bolivars?…

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Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced Tuesday he will run for Arizona’s Senate seat as an unabashedly pro-Trump candidate, fueling what was already one of the hottest races in the country.

Mr. Arpaio confirmed his decision on Twitter, after breaking the news in an interview with the Washington Examiner.

“I am running for the U.S. Senate from the Great State of Arizona, for one unwavering reason: to support the agenda and policies of President Donald Trump in his mission to Make America Great Again,” the former sheriff of Maricopa County said.

Analysts had predicted the 85-year-old would take the step after he was defeated in his bid for a seventh term as sheriff in 2016…

On Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. EST, Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched the secretive Zuma satellite into space aboard its Falcon Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral. However, less than a day later, the WSJ reports that the secretive spacecraft built by Northrop Grumman for the U.S. government military industrial complex, and worth billions “is presumed to be a total loss after it failed to reach orbit.”

Peter B. de Selding, a reporter for Space Intel Report, first broke the story just after at 4:00 p.m. EST on Monday. In a tweet, his sources suggested that the “Zuma satellite from @northropgrumman may be dead in orbit after separation from @SpaceX Falcon 9.”

According to the WSJ, “lawmakers and congressional staffers from the Senate and the House have been briefed about the botched mission.” Meanwhile, the secret payload – code-named Zuma and launched from Florida on board a Falcon 9 rocket – is believed to have plummeted back into the atmosphere because it didn’t separate as planned from the upper part of the rocket…

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A construction company that built one of the eight border wall prototypes for the Trump administration says it’s ready and able to build a 700-mile continuous wall from the Pacific Ocean in California through western Texas in a six-year period.

The Fisher Sand and Gravel Company told the Department of Homeland Security in the fall that it is willing to take on that task for $12.2 billion. Fisher has a plan to attain all project materials, manpower, and even a warranty for the wall, the company’s president, Tommy Fisher, told the Washington Examiner on Friday.

“We’re not advocating for a hodgepodge type of border system,” Fisher said, referring to comments from DHS about using technology and sensors at select parts of the border instead of a wall…

Heavy snowfall has trapped around 13,000 tourists at Zermatt, one of Switzerland’s most popular ski stations. The snow has blocked all roads and the train leading to the resort in the southern Swiss canton of Valais, which was also hit by some power outages, head of the train station Janine Imesch said.

There are currently ‘around 13,000 tourists at Zermatt,’ she said, while the station website warned that ‘arrivals and departures are not possible at the moment.’ The main access road has been closed since early yesterday, while the train was halted last night, she said.

Part of widespread weather chaos across the region, Zermatt is not the only resort to have suffered heavy blizzard-like conditions. Tignes, another ski resort, in the French Alps saw more than 62 inches of snow in the past 48 hours, while Sestriere in Italy – a few miles from the French borders – saw more than 30 inches fall.

Zermatt is home to about 5,500 inhabitants and has the capacity to accommodate 13,400 tourists…

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U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro ruled Monday the case against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy would be dismissed “with prejudice,” and ordered the rancher set free after federal prosecutors willfully withheld exculpatory evidence during the 2017 trial.

Navarro ruled a mistrial in the Bundy case last month after prosecutors “willful[ly]” withheld exculpatory evidence favorable to the four men on trial: Cliven Bundy, his two sons and one other person. The judge found that prosecutors had violated the defendant’s civil rights and violated federal law by hiding evidence from the court.

After the mistrial, Navarro set a Jan. 8 date to decide whether the case against Bundy would be retried or dismissed “with prejudice,” barring a retrial over the same charges…

New data has revealed that there have been more than 24,000 attempts to access pornographic websites in parliament over a four month period following the general election.

A total of 24,473 attempts to access porn from computers and other devices connected to the British parliamentary network were made by MPs, peers and staff between June and October 2017 . This makes an average of around 160 attempts day.

The figures emerged following a freedom of information request by the Press Association.

The Mirror reports: It comes after a sex harassment scandal gripped Westminster, which saw Theresa May sack her de facto deputy Damian Green after he made “misleading” statements about allegations that police found pornography on computers in his parliamentary office in 2008.

Mr Green continued to deny “unfounded and deeply hurtful” claims that he downloaded or viewed the material…

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Federal prosecutors revealed in new court documents that indicted state Sen. Nathaniel T. Oaks confessed to taking cash payments in exchange for official business before becoming an FBI cooperator and upending another bribery investigation.

The allegations come as Oaks prepares to begin his 30th legislative session in the General Assembly, which begins Wednesday.

While the U.S. attorney’s office says Oaks confessed both to taking cash payments and to interfering with an investigation, he has pleaded not guilty and has a trial scheduled for mid-April, right after the legislative session concludes.

Neither Oaks nor his defense attorney could be reached for comment Friday evening…

The Trump administration will announce on Monday it plans to end the Temporary Protected Status that has allowed 200,000 Salvadoran immigrants to remain in the United States, a U.S. Senate aide said.

Under the plan, the legal status will be extended until Sept. 9, 2019, the aide told Reuters. Salvadorans in the United States under the TPS program will have until that date to leave or obtain other lawful residency.

The Trump administration has faced a series of deadlines over the past year to decide whether to end the protections for immigrants in the United States whose home countries have been affected by disasters. Administration officials have said TPS is supposed to provide a temporary haven for victims, not a permanent status in the United States.

Haitians and Nicaraguans will lose their protected status in 2019 and Hondurans could lose theirs later this year. South Sudanese immigrants’ protected status was extended until May 2019…

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In October, 125 psychologists and assorted mental health professionals marched to New York’s City Hall while wearing red tags warning, “DANGER.” Leading the march was Peter Fraenkel, author of Sync Your Relationship, Save Your Marriage, mournfully beating a drum in a solemn march. Fraenkel, a psychologist and “professional drummer” was able to combine his love of drums and hatred of Trump.

The ‘Duty to Warn’ march had begun at New York Law School where the experts demanded that Trump be removed from office based on their inability to understand the 25th Amendment. And then the mental health experts marched to the beat of Fraenkel’s drum in what they insisted was a “funereal and dignified” procession…

Article I, Section 1 of the United States Constitution provides that: “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”

Legislative powers are the power to make and repeal laws. Those powers are not vested in the executive branch, which includes the president and, more relevant to this discussion, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recently announced that he will no longer follow an Obama-era policy of not enforcing federal laws against marijuana. Some states have repealed their own laws against marijuana, but marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and will stay that way unless Congress legislates otherwise.

This is basic civics stuff, but it seems to have eluded a lot of people. People such as Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., who exploded in response to Sessions’ announcement, saying that marijuana laws should be left to the states…

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The federal government employed 16,000 fewer people in December 2017 than it did in December 2016, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

State governments employed 19,000 fewer people in December 2017 than they did in December 2016. However, overall government employment in the United States increased by a net 42,000 during 2017 because of the 77,000 jobs added by local governments from December 2016 to December 2017.

The federal government in December 2016 employed 2,819,000 people, according to BLS. By December 2017, that had dropped to 2,803,000 – a decrease of 16,000. State governments in December 2016 employed 5,085,000 people…

Unemployment among black workers is at its lowest since at least the early 1970s, when the government began tracking the data.

The black unemployment rate of 6.8 percent in December was the lowest since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started tracking it in 1972, a year in which the rate ranged from 11.2 percent to 9.4 percent. In the 45 years the data has been tracked, the unemployment rate for black or African-American workers aged 16 years and older has never fallen below 7 percent.

Through last year, the black unemployment rate rose to 8 percent in March and fell back to 7 percent in September before falling again in December. The unemployment rate for white workers was 3.7 percent in December.

Overall, non-farm payrolls rose 148,000 in December, falling short of the 190,000 expected, according to data released Friday. The national unemployment rate was 4.1 percent. There was an unexpected loss of 20,000 retail jobs during the holiday season…

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A political science professor recently told students they should be “violating” the country’s laws to combat white supremacy, comments that were recorded and have since gone viral.

Diablo Valley College Professor Albert Ponce’s comments were couched in a guest lecture he gave for the school’s “Social Justice Lecture Series.” He is listed as a faculty member at the Northern California community college, located near San Francisco.

In his lecture, “White Supremacy in the U.S.,” Ponce discussed how slaves were controlled by laws in America’s history.

“And that’s the beauty of the law,” Ponce said. “If you can write it, you can convince all others to follow it, just like all of us do today – when we shouldn’t. Many of the laws existing, we should be violating those laws.”…

A tanker carrying Iranian oil and run by the country’s top oil shipping firm was ablaze and spewing cargo into the East China Sea on Sunday after colliding with a Chinese freight ship, leaving the tanker’s 32 crew members missing, the Chinese government said.

Thick clouds of dark smoke could be seen billowing out of the Sanchi tanker, engulfing the vessel as rescue efforts were hampered by bad weather and fire on and around the ship, Mohammad Rastad, head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organisation, told Iranian television.

The Sanchi, run by the country’s top oil shipping operator, collided with the CF Crystal about 160 nautical miles off the coast near Shanghai and the mouth of the Yangtze River Delta on Saturday evening, the Chinese Ministry of Transportation said in a statement.

The Panama-registered tanker was sailing from Iran to South Korea, carrying 136,000 tonnes of condensate, an ultra light crude. That is equivalent to just under 1 million barrels, worth about $60 million, based on global crude oil prices…

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The failure to repeal and replace Obamacare is regarded as perhaps the biggest legislative failure of President Trump’s first year in office. Yet, Trump managed to eliminate the linchpin of Obama’s signature law, the individual mandate, through the tax-reform bill passed in December.

And now the administration is taking the first step toward implementing one of the most important planks of conservative health-care reform: allowing the sale of health insurance across state lines.

The Department of Labor published Friday in the Federal Register a proposed rule to expand the offering of small business health plans, also known as association health plans, reported InsuranceNewsNet…

Federal agents posing as criminals were unable to purchase any firearms from legitimate online marketplaces despite dozens of attempts over a two-year period.

Between July 2015 and November 2017 investigators from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), following up on a congressional request, tried to make the illegal private gun purchases through a number of online forums and market places. They made 72 attempts over that time but couldn’t complete a single sale using legitimate sites.

In 29 attempts the gun sellers refused the sale after being asked to illegally ship the gun to the buyer. Twenty-seven sellers refused after being told the potential buyer was a felon, domestic abuser, or otherwise prohibited from buying a firearm.

Eleven sellers attempted to scam the investigators after finding out they were prohibited from buying firearms with two successfully obtaining money from investigators but never sending the promised firearm…

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One of NASA’s most storied figures, John Young, has passed away at the age of 87, according to NASA.

For four decades, Young flew missions as a part of the space agency’s most famous programs, including Gemini, Apollo and the space shuttle. He left Earth six times out of seven total missions, including two to the moon with Apollo.

He got to walk on the moon during Apollo 16. Young also commanded the space shuttle Columbia’s first flight, and made his final flight on the same vessel two years later. His 42 years with NASA is longer than any other astronaut.

“Astronaut John Young’s storied career spanned three generations of spaceflight,” said NASA administrator Robert Lightfoot in an emailed statement to the Associated Press…

In its never ending wisdom and good stewardship of the public purse, Portland has decided to spend $29 Million dollars on a 60-unit luxury condo building in the heart of the city’s upscale Pearl District. That comes to $483,333 per unit. For a condo. In an area where there is no parking. With the public on the hook for most of it.

In standard Portland operating procedure, it will please the greenies, by using an “innovative wood product called cross-laminated timber, or CLT, instead of steel and concrete.” Even more Portland-y, it will be called Framework and some organization called “Project^” is involved. Yes, Project^ is the name. With a “^”.

Courtesy of Willamette Week:

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announced Nov. 7 he wants to use public housing dollars to build an 11-story building with an innovative design. The building would be the nation’s tallest made of wood and serve as a public relations boon for the timber industry…

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The number of people enrolled in food stamps dropped by two million since President Trump took office, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The USDA data show that the number of people enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the government program that administers food stamps, plunged to 42,182,443 in fiscal year (FY) 2017 – a drop of 2,036,920 from the 44,219,363 enrolled in FY 2016.

Participation in the program is at its lowest level since 2010, when 40,302,000 people enrolled in the program. Food stamp enrollment steadily declined after 2013, when participation in the government program swelled to 47.6 million – the highest amount it has ever been since former President Lyndon Johnson authorized the creation of the food stamp program in 1964…

We are reaching a tipping point. The reckless, capricious abuse of our freedoms by uniformly left-wing social media managers demands government intervention.

Readers of my book FATWA: Hunted in America are painfully aware of the social media war on free speech activists. I have detailed the oppressive ongoing campaign of attrition by Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – social media giants run by uniformly leftwing corporate managers – against me, not to mention my colleagues.

Just this week Twitter terminated the account of the winner of AFDI’s Muhammad Art Exhibit, former Muslim Bosch Fawstin. The ensuing outcry moved Twitter to reinstate his account but that is hardly the answer. What about counter jihad activists and conservatives without a huge social media voice or influential social media friends. Milo , on the other hand, is still banned from Twitter.

Facebook has banned my feed to over two million followers. Google AdSense has terminated my account, libeling my site as “dangerous”…

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First, a few thoughts on the DOJ’s reported interest in taking another look at Hillary Clinton’s protocol-violating and national security-compromising email server, a scandal about which she lied repeatedly:

(1) I’d be a bit surprised if DOJ ends up pursuing charges, as that ship likely sailed when James Comey (wrongly, in my view) chose not to recommend prosecution in July 2016.

(2) I’m somewhat uncomfortable seeing the supposedly-independent Justice Department clearly bowing to incessant political pressure from the president on this subject. It’s true that President Obama telegraphed his preferred outcome while the FBI was probing the matter during the election, and that Attorney General Lynch severely harmed the integrity of the process with her infamous tarmac meeting and subsequent actions…

Over one million American workers have already received bonuses or raises in response to President Donald Trump’s historic tax reform passing. The amazing news was announced in a statement from the White House Press Office on Friday evening.

“More than one million hardworking Americans have already received a ‘Trump Bonus’ or ‘Trump Pay Raise’ as a result of the historic tax reform package that President Donald J. Trump signed into law just before Christmas,” the statement began.

“President Trump said from the beginning that lowering tax rates, simplifying the complicated tax code, and making our companies more competitive would be the fuel that propels our economy to new heights,” the statement continued. “The preliminary results show that the President is right, and American workers and families are the big winners. And this is only the beginning. The President remains focused on empowering Americans to build more prosperous lives for themselves and brighter futures for their children.”…

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A handwritten statement given to the FBI by the wife of Pulse nightclub gunman Omar Mateen says she saw him prepare for the deadly attack for months and knew that the LGBT nightclub was his target.

The 12-page statement, quietly released by federal authorities at the end of December in a batch of records in the case, was taken hours after the June 12, 2016 shooting. The attack left 49 dead and dozens of others injured. Noor Salman was questioned for hours, without a lawyer, after authorities learned her husband was the gunman behind the attack.

She was arrested last year on federal charges of providing material support to a terrorist and tampering with evidence but has pleaded not guilty, claiming she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder…

A 99-year-old hunter in Mississippi wants to know why people are making a big fuss about her recent kill. It was a doe after all, not a prized buck.

The Clarion Ledger reports that Bertha Vickers used a .243 Winchester rifle to kill a doe recently a few miles from her rural home. Relatives posted pictures of Vickers and her kill on Facebook, and people sent messages of congratulations.

Vickers says she doesn’t know “why everybody is making such a big deal about it” because it was “just a doe” and not a buck.

Vickers lives near the farming community where she grew up in northern Mississippi, outside Starkville. She still mows her own yard and enjoys squirrel hunting.

She turns 100 on Tuesday.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed…

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A court in California has ordered Antifa organizer Yvette Felarca to pay $11,000 after she filed a frivolous restraining order against former Berkeley College Republicans President Troy Worden.

In 2017, Antifa organizer Yvette Felarca filed a restraining order against former UC Berkeley College Republican president Troy Worden, citing two alleged incidents of harassment. Worden’s attorney alleges that Felarca made up two false accusations of harassment against him. He claims that Felarca used two incidents in which Worden made eye contact with her on campus as a basis for the restraining order.

Now, a California court has ordered Felarca to pay a $11,000 fine for filing a frivolous lawsuit. The funds will go directly to covering Worden’s attorney fees…

Well, well, well, turns out even Michael Wolff, author of the “Fire and Fury” book that has sparked such national discussion about the Donald Trump White House, admits that not everything he wrote is true.

In his prologue, Wolff writes, as Business Insider noted: “Many of the accounts of what has happened in the Trump White House are in conflict with one another; many, in Trumpian fashion, are boldly untrue. These conflicts, and that looseness with the truth, if not with reality itself, are an elemental thread of the book.”

In other words: Take with a grain of salt, Dear Reader, what you read.

So why did Wolff include the maybe-maybe not true statements?

“Sometimes,” he wrote, “I have let the players offer their versions, in turn allowing the reader to judge them. In other instances I have, through a consistency in the accounts and through sources I have come to trust, settled on a version of events I believe to be true.”…

The White House has fought back hard against some of the most damaging statements attributed to sources in this book, saying they’re blatantly untrue and threatening to sue both author and publisher for defamation.

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President Donald Trump’s growing feud with Steve Bannon is threatening the former White House strategist’s leadership of the conservative Breitbart News website and upending Bannon’s plans to wage “war” on party incumbents he deemed insufficiently loyal to the White House agenda.

Trump said Bannon has “lost his mind” and that he has “nothing to do with me or my presidency,” a response to Bannon’s numerous incendiary comments – including insults about the president’s family – in a new book about the first year of the Trump administration.

Bannon’s longtime benefactors, billionaires Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah Mercer, are actively distancing from him even before the expected release of Michael Wolff’s book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” according to two people close to the Mercers…

Islamic State’s White Beard executioner has been captured by Iraqi forces in Mosul after locals ratted him out. The killer, identified as Abu Omer, was one of the terror group’s fearsome henchmen and was renowned for stoning people to death.

His arrest was confirmed on Friday by civilians who told the authorities where they believed the ISIS enforcer was hiding out. The terror group has been practically flushed out of Mosul, though some remain underground.

Fewer than 1,000 ISIS fighters are now said to be in Syria and Iraq combined, having once held large parts of the two countries’ major cities. The hideouts for the likes of Omer are wearing thin, according to AhlulBayt News Agency, and cities like Mosul are now facing the mammoth task of rebuilding.

In March 2015, chilling images emerged of three men accused of homosexuality and blasphemy being forced to their knees and publicly beheaded by a sword-wielding Islamic State executioner…

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The rival Koreas will sit down for their first formal talks in more than two years next week to find ways to cooperate on the Winter Olympics in the South and to improve their abysmal ties, Seoul officials said Friday. While a positive sign after last year’s threats of nuclear war, the Koreas have a long history of failing to move past their deep animosity.

The announcement came hours after the United States said it will delay annual military exercises with South Korea until after the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, next month. The exercises infuriate North Korea, which claims they are an invasion rehearsal, although South Korea and the United States have repeatedly said they are defensive in nature.

On Friday morning, North Korea sent a message saying it would accept South Korea’s offer to meet at the border village of Panmunjom…

The Islamic State branch in the Sinai Peninsula on Wednesday called on its supporters to attack Hamas in a gruesome execution video as long-simmering tensions between the rival Islamic terror groups erupted into the open.

The 22-minute long video culminated with the execution of one of its members, shot in the back of the head for allegedly smuggling weapons to Hamas.

“[Hamas] uses its smuggled weapons to empower that which was not revealed by God. It also fights supporters of the Islamic State in Gaza and the Sinai and prevents the migration of these supporters from Gaza to the Sinai,” said a speaker in the video, who is referred to as Abu Kazem al-Maqdisi, an Islamic State preacher in the Sinai, originally from Gaza.

Maqdisi calls on viewers to attack the security headquarters and courthouses of Hamas in Gaza, as these are “the pillars of tyranny.”

At the end of the video, the narrator declares that a man, named as Musa Abu Zamat, who was once among the ranks of Islamic State, was sentenced to death…

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President Trump’s historic tax cuts are a gift that keeps on giving.

Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly announced this week that the company will award employee bonuses, donate millions to charity, and invest in improving its business with the money it will save from the president’s tax reform.

Liberals, of course, are attempting to paint the announcement as a bad thing, with some even vowing to boycott Southwest for its generosity.

“I’m proud to report we are rewarding our Employees with a $1,000 bonus with the anticipated savings from the tax reform legislation,” Kelly wrote on Twitter Tuesday, “we are contributing an additional $5 million in charitable donations, and we are making investments in our fleet and our business.”…

Rep. Ron DeSantis announced Friday that he plans to run for governor of Florida and already has the support of President Trump.

“With the support of the president, I’m in a position to exercise the leadership that can build on the great work [current Gov.] Rick Scott has done to advance economic opportunity, reform education and drain the swamp in Tallahassee,” Mr. DeSantis, Florida Republican, said on Fox News.

Mr. Trump tweeted a few weeks ago that Mr. DeSantis would make a “great” governor and is “a true fighter.”

Mr. DeSantis is a former Navy lawyer who made a name for himself recently by questioning special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into collusion claims between the president and Russian officials.

He has been rumored as a likely candidate since current Mr. Scott is term-limited…

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The University of California-San Diego is now embroiled in a personal injury lawsuit after an election protest gone wrong.

Mariana Flores, a sophomore at UCSD, was demonstrating against Donald Trump’s victory on a busy San Diego freeway when a vehicle hit her. The accident crushed her pelvis, fractured her leg, and caused other serious injuries, reported The Guardian campus newspaper.

Flores, in her suit filed in late November, partly blames campus officials for her injury, arguing they should have stopped the protest before it got dangerous, according to news reports.

Flores’ attorney did not respond to requests from The College Fix seeking comment…

As the first year of the Trump administration comes to a close, one can’t help but look back on how allegations of “Russian collusion” dominated the headlines of almost every news agency. Hearings, leaks, and so-called “bombshells” saturated the mainstream media coverage almost immediately after the 2016 presidential campaign concluded.

Sadly, manufactured hysteria on this issue throughout 2017 has frequently masked the substantial accomplishments of President Trump’s administration – some that qualify as historic. The stock market has surged at levels not seen in nearly a decade. The Islamic State has been decimated in the Middle East. Our embassy in Israel is moving to Jerusalem, Israel’s undivided capital. Trump delivered on the largest tax cuts and overhaul to the tax code since the Reagan administration. These are just a few examples.

Yet, in spite of the constant headlines, rampant speculation, and overshadowing of accomplishments, a simple truth remains: There is no evidence of any collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians…

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The party on Wall Street is showing no sign of slowing down in 2018. The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 25,000 on Thursday for the first time ever, propelled by signs that the US economic expansion won’t slow down anytime soon.

The 152.45-point surge, to 25,075.13, made it the best day for the blue-chip stock index since Nov. 30 – and amounted to the fastest millennial milestone ever, taking only 23 trading days since it passed 24,000.

The market was bolstered after ADP released a survey showing an estimated 205,000 jobs were added last month, more than analysts expected, indicating that the economy was continuing to grow at a strong pace.

A federal judge has ruled against Fusion GPS in the Trump dossier firm’s quest to block the release of its bank records to the House Intelligence Committee.

Judge Richard Leon shot down all four of Fusion’s arguments against the release of 70 records of transactions involving some of its clients as well as journalists and researchers it has paid since Sept. 2015.

Fusion sued its bank, TD Bank, in October, to prevent it from complying with a subpoena issued by the House Intelligence Committee, which has been looking into Fusion’s role in putting together the dossier.

That subpoena, issued by committee chairman Devin Nunes on Oct. 5, prompted Perkins Coie, the law firm that represented the Clinton campaign and DNC, to reveal that it had hired Fusion GPS in April 2016 to investigate Trump.

Fusion later hired Christopher Steele, a former British spy with experience in Moscow…

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The Justice Department has launched a new inquiry into whether the Clinton Foundation engaged in any pay-to-play politics or other illegal activities while Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State, law enforcement officials and a witness tells The Hill.

FBI agents from Little Rock, Ark., where the Foundation was started, have taken the lead in the investigation and have interviewed at least one witness in the last month, and law enforcement officials said additional activities are expected in coming weeks.

The officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the probe is examining whether the Clintons promised or performed any policy favors in return for largesse to their charitable efforts or whether donors made commitments of donations in hopes of securing government outcomes…

The Trump administration is proposing to open almost all U.S. coastal waters to oil drilling, including those off California and Florida where activists have fought for decades to spare delicate ecosystems from oil spills.

The proposal being released Thursday will go far beyond President Donald Trump’s April order directing the Interior Department to consider auctioning oil and gas leases in the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans as well as the Gulf of Mexico.

Instead, the Interior Department is proposing 47 possible auctions of drilling rights in more than 90 percent of the U.S. outer continental shelf, including Pacific waters near California and Atlantic waters near Maine. The draft plan opens the door to selling leases in 25 of the nation’s 26 offshore planning areas.

“Under President Trump, we are going to become the strongest energy superpower this world has ever known,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told reporters…

James Comey may have leaked at least one classified memo to a friend shortly after he was fired as FBI director. That’s an assessment from Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley, who wrote a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Wednesday demanding answers about the handling of memos that Comey wrote following his conversations with President Trump.

Grassley noted that he and his staff recently reviewed seven memos that Comey wrote after his meetings with Trump. Four of those documents contained information classified as “CONFIDENTIAL” or “SECRET.” Grassley also pointed to past reporting that Comey gave four memos of his conversations with Trump to a friend, Columbia law professor Daniel Richman.

“If it’s true that Professor Richman had four of the seven memos, then in light of the fact that four of the seven memos the Committee reviewed are classified, it would appear that at least one memo the former FBI director gave Professor Richman contained classified information,” Grassley writes…

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White House staffers will no longer be able to use their personal cellphones at work starting Friday, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday and the White House confirmed on Thursday.

The ban was enacted by chief of staff John Kelly, Bloomberg reported. In a statement shared with TPM, the White House said the ban was put in place for security reasons. One unnamed aide told Bloomberg that there were too many devices connected to the White House WiFi and officials were concerned that personal phones weren’t as secure as government phones.

“The security and integrity of the technology systems at the White House is a top priority for the Trump administration and therefore the use of all personal devices for both guests and staff will no longer be allowed in the West Wing,” the White House said in its statement…

U.S. manufacturing had its strongest year since 2004. The industry reported in December increased expansion over three months due to increases in orders and production, according to a report from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM).

The ISM report states that the factory index, a survey measuring factory activity, climbed from 58.2 to 59.7 over the past month and that a measure of new orders rose to 69.4, the highest recorded measurement of an expanding manufacturing sector since January 2004.

According to ISM, any reading above 50 points shows an increase in factory activity. Tim Fiore, chair of the ISM manufacturing business survey committee, said he was optimistic about ISM’s latest report on the manufacturing industry.

“With a report like this, I can’t do anything but smile,” Fiore told the Kansas City Star.

The latest findings come as increases in domestic business investment, a rise in American household spending, and an improving global economy contribute to the manufacturing industry’s boom, Bloomberg reports…

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Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is suing the Department of Justice and special counsel Robert Mueller in an attempt to kneecap the federal probe into alleged coordination between the campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.

In a court filing on Wednesday, lawyers for Manafort argue that the order establishing Mueller’s investigation is overly broad and not permitted under Justice Department regulations. Mueller should be ordered to stop investigating any of Manafort’s conduct that doesn’t relate to his time as campaign chair, the suit says, and the appointment itself should be declared invalid.

“By ignoring the boundaries of the jurisdiction granted to the Special Counsel in the Appointment Order, Mr. Mueller acted beyond the scope of his authority…

Russia quietly doubled its crude oil export capacity to China in the new year when it launched a new pipeline, cementing its position as the number one supplier of crude to its Asian neighbor.

The extension of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean, or ESPO, oil pipeline between Russia and China started operating on January 1, doubling the export volumes from 15 to 30 million tons annually, or almost 220 million barrels, Xinhua reported. The agency noted that the extension, which was agreed in 2013, would serve China’s Belt and Road initiative for expanding China’s regional influence in Asia.

The new section of the Eastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean pipeline began operations Monday, Xinhua added. The venture is expected to “deepen energy co-operation between Moscow and Beijing” and serve the Belt and Road Initiative, a major Chinese-led development project across Asia.

Rosneft is the supplier of the crude via the ESPO pipeline, while PetroChina is the buyer. The oil will be processed at three refineries in the Northeast of China…

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U.S. House Republicans are drafting a contempt of Congress resolution against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray, claiming stonewalling in producing material related to the Russia-Trump probes and other matters.

Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes and other committee Republicans, after considering such action for several weeks, decided to move after media including the New York Times reported Saturday on why a top FBI official assigned to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russia-Trump election collusion had been removed from the investigation.

Republicans, including the president, pointed to the reports as evidence that the entire probe into Russian meddling has been politically motivated…

A Somali immigrant allegedly tried to rape a woman while she was in labor at a hospital in Rome, according to a Tuesday report.

Alى Abdella, 38, has been accused of sexual violence and theft by attempting to rape an unidentified woman, 43, while she was in labor at the Sant’Eugenio Hospital in Rome, reported Italian outlet Il Libero Quotidianno. Abdella allegedly stole and donned a green hospital uniform, entered the woman’s hospital room, and began groping her thigh and masturbating in front of her, reported La Stampa.

The woman began screaming, alerting hospital staff who called the police, accoring to pupia.tv. Abdella, who has been living in Italy for the past five years and has a history of crime, was arrested Dec. 31 by the Epozione police department.

Abdella’s first trial has been scheduled for Jan. 10. The defense team is calling for a psychiatrist’s report…

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President Donald Trump threatened to cut off U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority after its leaders said the president’s unilateral decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel disqualified America as a Middle East peace mediator.

Trump said in a series of tweets Tuesday that the U.S. pays “the Palestinians HUNDRED[S] OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year” yet gets “no appreciation or respect.” He added that “with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”

The White House communications staff declined to comment other than to refer reporters back to the president’s tweet…

A bi=partisan group of senators introduced a bill to abandon paperless voting machines in U.S. elections. The Secure Elections Act is aimed at enhancing the accuracy and credibility of election results.

The bill was introduced by a group of six senators in response to the speculations surrounding the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Sponsors of the legislation say it will also mitigate the risks of foreign interference.

Senators propose providing federal grants to states so they can get rid of voting machines believed to be “obsolete” and “vulnerable” to hacking.

“We’ve gotta help states have a good reliable auditable election system that they can actually do themselves and that the federal government and all entities in those states can trust the election results,” stated Oklahoma Senator James Lankford.

The bill also introduces post-election statistical audits of results by counting a fixed percentage of ballots…

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A Hot Springs Republican has entered the governor’s race and will challenge Gov. Asa Hutchinson in the GOP primary in May. Jan Morgan, 54, announced her candidacy in a new release sent Sunday night and at an event in Hot Springs.

She owns the Gun Cave shooting range in Hot Springs. In 2014, she drew national media attention by declaring her gun range a “Muslim Free Zone,” saying that she was concerned about the safety of other customers if Muslims patronized her business.

In her campaign’s news release, Morgan said she traveled the state for six months talking to Arkansans before making her decision to run. “As we embark on the dawn of a new day and new year in Arkansas, I am excited about the future potential of our beautiful state and her people,” she was quoted as saying…

President Trump said Tuesday night that he will give out derisive awards next week for the “most dishonest and corrupt media,” after a year of feuding with the press.

“I will be announcing THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR on Monday at 5:00 o’clock,” Mr. Trump tweeted. “Subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media. Stay tuned!”

The president has waged a war of words with several mainstream media outlets, feuding primarily with CNN, NBC, The New York Times and The Washington Post, among others.

Last week, Mr. Trump’s campaign asked supporters to help him award a “Fake News Trophy” by sending in their nominations.

“Americans are sick and tired of being lied to, insulted, and treated with outright condescension,” an email to Trump supporters stated. “That’s why President Trump is crowning the 2017 KING OF FAKE NEWS before the end of the year.”…

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Chelsea Clinton gave a warm holiday greeting to an unusual group when she wished The Church of Satan a “Happy New Year” in a tweet Tuesday.

Clinton found herself in a Twitter conversation with The Church of Satan, model Chrissy Teigen, the restaurant Hooters and various assorted accounts after she tweeted encouragement to Teigen.

The popular model and best-selling cookbook author had tweeted her frustration Saturday over a verified Twitter account that used pictures of Teigen’s daughter in costumes to make wild accusations of pedophilia.

Clinton responded that she was sending Teigen and her daughter “a huge hug,”…

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, on Tuesday said there should be no Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) amnesty deal contained within the government funding bill coming up in January.

The important move by Meadows aims to take government shutdown leverage away from Democrats in the upcoming DACA battles – something that President Donald Trump alluded to on Tuesday morning on Twitter when he bashed Democrats for not being serious about DACA solutions.

Meadows, in an interview with MSNBC host Chuck Todd, said that a DACA deal is in the works and being discussed.

“We have been working closely with the administration and some of my Democrat colleagues, even some Republicans that perhaps are more moderate than I would be, because the president set a deadline in March to deal with the 674,000 people that had deferred action,” Meadows said…

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Promising new animal research suggests a drug originally developed to treat diabetes significantly reverses memory loss and brain degeneration in mice with a rodent version of Alzheimer’s disease. If the same is proven true in humans, the drug could one day be used as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and other memory-related illnesses.

In the study, published online this week in Brain Research, scientists from Lancaster University in England used lab mice to test how effective a diabetes drug known as a triple receptor was in treating Alzheimer’s disease.

The mice in the study were specifically created to express certain genes associated with Alzheimer’s disease in humans…

A judge in Vermont has tossed a controversial case against a University of Vermont (“UVM”) student accused of using “explicitly racist and threatening language” against black students and diversity programs on campus.

According to Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George, the judge in the case did not find probable cause to sustain a charge of disorderly conduct over the student’s allegedly racist tirade.

Twenty-year-old Wesley Richter was cited by UVM Police on October 5 over the incident. The citation is said to have stemmed from a phone conversation between Richter and his mother. While talking to his mother on the phone in a university library, Richter apparently said something offensive.

Another student overheard those allegedly insensitive comments and then contacted the authorities. The actual content of the conversation in question is still unclear because the judge in the case refused to publicly release the citation affidavit…

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Britain’s media celebrated in droves when London elected its first Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, in May 2016. Now the cacophony caused by the “we’re not racist” backslapping has ended, the true implications of a Khan mayoralty are being realised.

In Britain’s capital over the past year, Khan presided over rises in knife crime, gun crime, theft, burglary, rape, homicide, and more. And not just by a little bit, either.

Some in the media – by which I mean basically just me – predicted Khan might be a disaster for London, but the extent to which this is true was beyond even our worst nightmares.

Parking the anecdotal evidence of Khan giving preference to genital mutilation-linked groups, and using his platform to agitate against the U.S. President, the statistics reveal a terrifying incompetence in keeping London safe…

Freedom of speech has been effectively abolished online in Germany, as the country has begun enforcing strict censorship laws designed to prohibit the expression of “hate” online.

The Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) mandates all social networking platforms with more than 2 million members must investigate and delete “illegal” content within one day of a complaint being received.

Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram are among the sites which fall under the purview of the new law. The fine for failing to delete illegal content can be as high as 50 million euros.

Deputy leader Beatrix von Storch of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) Party, which opposes the surging Islamization of the country under the government of Angela Merkel, has been called the first victim of the new law.

On New Year’s Eve, von Storch criticized Cologne police for expressing holiday wishes in Arabic, claiming they were trying to appease “barbarians.”…

After lining up for an entire day to get a plane ticket to visit her relatives in the western city of Mérida, Josefina Garcيa did not know if she and her octogenarian mother were going to reach their final destination on time for Christmas.

The airport is located 76 kilometers away from the city and when they tried to book a cab in advance to take them to the place where they were going to stay, the taxi company said they could not make bookings because there is a shortage of gas and management did not know if they were going to have enough fuel on the day of Josefina’s arrival.

Once they landed, the 61-year-old and her mother found a cab that had enough gas to take them to a certain part of the city where a cousin would pick them up. In the meantime, another cousin was lining up for gas. He was able to fill his sedan’s tank after waiting for more than six hours.

According to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the highest proven oil reserves in the world are in Venezuela…

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President Trump slammed Huma Abedin over reports that the longtime Hillary Clinton aide forwarded top secret passwords to unsecured personal email accounts, which were then hacked by foreign agents.

“Crooked Hillary Clinton’s top aide, Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents. Remember sailors pictures on the submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act? Also on Comey & others,” President Trump tweeted on Tuesday.

As The Gateway Pundit‘s Cristina Laila reported, Abedin forwarded sensitive State Department emails to her insecure Yahoo email accounts, which were later hacked by foreign actors…

Clashes overnight between protesters and security forces in Iran have left nine people dead, state TV reports said, amid reports around 450 people have been arrested during three days of protest the capital Tehran.

The demonstrations, the largest to strike Iran since its disputed 2009 presidential election, have seen six days of unrest across the country and a death toll of at least 20.

The semi-official ILNA news agency quoted Ali Asghar Nasserbakht, a security deputy governor of Tehran, who said 200 protesters were arrested on Saturday, 150 on Sunday and 100 were arrested Monday.

Offering his first comments since they began, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the “enemies of Iran” of meddling in the country’s affairs.

The protests began on Thursday in Mashhad over Iran’s weak economy and a jump in food prices and have expanded to several cities…

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Weeks after The Hill revealed a $750,000 scheme by California woman’s rights attorney Lisa Bloom to compensate women accusing Donald Trump of sexual misconduct – one of whom had her mortgage paid off after Trump ignored her pleas to become his makeup-artist during the campaign – the New York Times claims in a bombshell report that DNC operative and Media Matters founder David Brock, along with major Hillary Clinton friend and donor, Susie Tompkins Buell, steered $700,000 towards Bloom’s efforts to smear Trump with sexual misconduct claims right before the 2016 election.

As the NYT notes, several donors reached out to Ms. Bloom “asking how they could help.” She told them that she was working with “a few other women” who might “find the courage to speak out” against Mr. Trump…

Like this:

With 2017 quickly drawing to a close, Breitbart News thought the timing right to review the top 25 defensive gun uses (DGUs) of 2017.

And while it must be noted that these 25 examples are only a smidgen of the hundreds of thousands of DGUs that occur each year – see the academic work of Florida State University’s Gary Kleck – they nonetheless present a well-rounded summation of the various locations and circumstances in which law-abiding citizens use guns to defend their own lives and the lives of others.

Here are the top 25 DGUs of 2017:

January 2, 2017 – Kay Dickinson was attacked while entering her Wilmington, North Carolina, apartment. WWAY repoted that Dickinson had just gotten off work and was going into her apartment at Colonial Parke when she was attacked.” The suspect held her at gunpoint, “beat her and then tied her up with a broken belt in her bedroom.” She was able to work free, retrieve her gun, and kill the suspect…

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Australia rang in the New Year Sunday with a spectacular display of fireworks cascading from Sydney Harbour Bridge, as revellers marked start of New Year

About 1.5 million people packed the city’s foreshore to watch the pyrotechnics light up the sky above the historic bridge and the iconic opera house, the first major celebrations worldwide after New Zealand.

Thousands turned out earlier in New Zealand’s largest city Auckland for the annual New Year’s Eve street party, marked by a major fireworks display from the Sky Tower.

Around the world

Celebrations will move to Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and finally the Americas, with dazzling light shows bidding farewell to 2017…

An Obama-era plan to have the federal government finance half of a $13 billion rail tunnel project ran into a red light Friday from the Trump administration.

The plan, proposed under President Barack Obama in 2015, includes revitalizing a deteriorating Amtrak tunnel connecting New Jersey to New York City, repairing damage to a dual-tunnel conduit, and reconstructing the New Jersey railroad network’s aging Portal Bridge, Crain’s New York Business reported.

Amtrak, which owns most of the rail tunnels and tracks between Boston and Washington, D.C., contends that the existing tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York City is damaged and could fail within 10 to 15 years, threatening daily rail transportation in the Northeast.

The original Obama-era plan called for costs to be split among New York state, New Jersey and the federal government. But in a letter Friday, the Trump administration notified New York and New Jersey that the Obama-era deal was now “non-existent”…

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A business news service in Israel has exposed what experts say is a new tax authority that targets exclusively French Jews – one unprecedented anywhere in the modern world.

According to the Globes, French citizens and their tax preparers have been astonished to hear about the new department, which they charge is discriminatory, giving rise to questions about selective enforcement.

“The procedure is new and questionable, and discriminates against French Jews,” Itay Bracha, a tax expert who represents French clients with tax authorities in Israel and France, told the Globes. “The measure is an extremely irregular and rare one in which a tax authority in a foreign country is setting up a special division to handle Jews, and recruiting an exceptionally large number of employees for it.”…

Yep, Brady violator and U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre, who has prosecuted several Bundy trials and retrials yielding virtually nothing, has decided to appeal to Judge Gloria Navarro for retrial of the defendants even though he violated their constitutional rights by not disclosing exculpatory evidence in the trial.

Navarro declared a mistrial just prior to Christmas because she found the prosecution to have engaged in multiple Brady violations, of which prosecutor Myhre has a history of engaging in.

Myhre appealed to Navarro in a 55-page legal brief to retry Cliven, Ryan and Ammon Bundy and Ryan Payne and said that his failure to provide evidence to the defense in the previous trial was simply “inadvertent” or because they reasonably believed the law didn’t require them to share the material.

“The Brady violations found by the court are regrettable and benefit no one,” Myhre wrote in his brief. “But because the government neither flagrantly violated nor recklessly disregarded its obligations, the appropriate remedy for such violations is a new trial.”…

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Mayor de Blasio will get a fat 15 percent raise when his second term begins Monday – bumping his salary from $225,000 to $258,750 a year. The $33,750 boost is more than the annual salary of a full-time worker making the city’s roughly $13 minimum wage.

“Oh, that’s way, way too much money for the mayor,” said David Schermerhorn of VOCAL New York, a group that works with low-income New Yorkers. “That’s corporate America money.”

De Blasio authorized his cushy new salary two years ago by signing legislation that gave city pols a retroactive raise starting January 2016. But he refused to accept any pay hike during his first term because he convened the advisory commission that recommended higher salaries for the city’s elected officials…

Deputies in Flagler County, Florida claim a man tried to electrocute his pregnant wife with a booby trapped door. Michael Scott Wilson, 32, was arrested Thursday afternoon. Sheriff Rick Staly called it “one of the most bizarre domestic violence cases I have seen in my career.”

The investigation started Tuesday. Wilson’s father-in-law heard him make suspicious statements about not letting a child touch the front door of a home, so he contacted law enforcement, deputies said.

Authorities discovered the door to be barricaded, with burn marks by the handle. After kicking the door and witnessing a spark, they discovered that it was set up with electrical equipment in an attempt to cause serious injury or even death to anyone who tried to open it, the sheriff’s office statement said.

Deputies believe Wilson set it up in an attempt to hurt his estranged wife. Authorities obtained a warrant, and tracked him down in Tennessee, where was he arrested on Thursday…

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Iranians took to the streets for a third day of anti-government protests in what appeared to be the biggest domestic political challenge to Tehran’s leaders since the 2009 Green movement was crushed by security forces.

At least two protesters were killed in the city of Doroud, in Iran’s western Lourestan province, as the riot police opened fire to contain a group of people said to have been trying to occupy the local governor’s office. Clashes between demonstrators and the anti-riot police became violent in some cities as the demonstrations spread.

The two men killed in Doroud have been identified as Hamzeh Lashni and Hossein Reshno, according to an Iranian journalist with the Voice of America’s Persian service who has spoken to their families…

The Trump administration on Friday announced the United States will deny Pakistan military aid amounting to $255 million as it expects Islamabad to take decisive action “against terrorists and militants on its soil”.

“The United States does not plan to spend the $255 million in FY 2016 in Foreign Military Financing for Pakistan at this time,” said a spokesperson of the President’s National Security Council in a statement to Hindustan Times.

“The President has made clear that the United States expects Pakistan to take decisive action against terrorists and militants on its soil, and that Pakistan’s actions in support of the South Asia Strategy will ultimately determine the trajectory of our relationship, including future security assistance.

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Just yesterday we warned that the lives of the world’s new “Bitcoin Billionaires” had just become a bit more complicated after reports surfaced that one such crypto investor, Pavel Lerner, was kidnapped by a group of armed men wearing ski masks as he left his office in the Obolon district of Kiev earlier this week.

While it may have seemed that his fate was sealed at the moment of his kidnapping, the Financial Times has just confirmed the Lerner has been released after paying his kidnappers a $1 million ransom in Bitcoin.

An executive of a UK-registered cryptocurrency exchange kidnapped in Ukraine this week has been released after paying a ransom of more than $1m in bitcoins…

A poisonous product intended to destroy bugs is an ingredient in a drug called “wasp,” which a Tennessee burglary suspect admitted to smoking before he committed the crime.

“Wasp” was in the system of Danny Hollis Jr., 35, when he was arrested after a violent and destructive rampage. Police said the man was high on wasp when he broke into a random home Dec. 18, ransacked the place and then attempted to slash his own throat at the family’s dinner table in front of a mother and four children.

While trying to escape, police said Hollis got tangled in barbed wire, then climbed a tree and stripped off all his clothes. That’s where he was when police arrived and took him into custody.

Hollis admitted to police he had smoked wasp, and he faces a long list of charges, WTVF in Nashville reports. Deputies said in jail, Hollis could not recall any of the events that took place.

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President Trump is doing his best to clear every bit of swamp scum out of Washington D.C.

On Wednesday the president abruptly fired all sixteen remaining members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) many of which were appointed by Obama.

From IJR:

Sources told the Washington Blade that members were likely fired to clear out Obama appointees even though their appointments had not yet expired.

“I can only speculate,” said Gabriel Maldonado, a remaining member of PACHA. “Like any administration, they want their own people there. Many of us were Obama appointees. I was an Obama appointee and my term was continuing until 2018.”…

On the cusp of the new year, virtually every media outlet will do some version of the year in review. They will highlight their top stories of 2017. This season there are not a lot of stories to revisit since most of the media has sustained repetitious reporting on just a few narratives.

For sure, they will focus in on some irrelevant “latest developments” to fill out their airtime and column inches, but there are very few distinctive stories. What these year-end summaries lack is substance, or as it was once known as, hard news. It will be a regurgitation of their preconceived notions, speculations, anonymous sources, political biases and dubious narratives.

It is with this in mind that I would like to review the BIG NON-NEWS OF 2018 – those media reports that never happened – where the media was unapologetically wrong. These are the stories that received significant coverage based solely on conjecture, opinion and a biased intent to do harm.

Most of these news reports start with some anchor or parroting panelist saying, “we don’t know…” and then going on with a prolonged explanation (usually biased) as to the meaning of what they do not know…

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The founder of the anti-police group Georgia Cop Block was arrested for impersonating a police officer and interrupting law enforcement radio traffic on Thursday, police said.

Jonathan Beavers, 29, has been charged with four counts of harassing communications, two counts of obstruction of an officer, and one count of impersonating an officer, Cherokee Sheriff’s Office (CSO) Sergeant Marrianne Kelley told the Cherokee Tribune and Ledger-News.

“The Criminal Investigations Division identified the suspect as Beavers and executed a search warrant at his residence. Investigators located evidence to further their investigation,” Sgt. Kelley said.

Beavers resides with his mother, Woylene Waldroup, who denied that her son would ever think to impersonate an officer…

President Donald Trump delivered an ultimatum to Democrats regarding amnesty for DACA recipients, saying there would be no deal without funding for the border wall.

“The Democrats have been told, and fully understand, that there can be no DACA without the desperately needed WALL at the Southern Border and an END to the horrible Chain Migration & ridiculous Lottery System of Immigration etc,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Friday morning. “We must protect our Country at all cost!”

The president repeated comments about the wall and a DACA deal in an interview with the New York Times on Thursday.

“Look, I wouldn’t do a DACA plan without a wall. Because we need it,” he said. “We see the drugs pouring into the country, we need the wall.”

Trump’s comments signal an opening salvo in the fight with Democrats over funding the government in January…

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The State Department is set to release portions of 2,800 of Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s work-related emails and other documents, all recovered last year by the FBI on a laptop belonging to her estranged husband Anthony Weiner.

Tom Fitton, president of the center-right government transparency group Judicial Watch, tweeted on Thursday afternoon that State would publish ‘releasable portions’ of the documents on Friday.

Without mentioning who ran things at the time, the Washington Post has come out with a stinging report on the pervasive atmosphere of sexual harassment at the Department of Justice in the last years of the Obama administration, reporting:

The Justice Department has “systemic” problems in how it handles sexual harassment complaints, with those found to have acted improperly often not receiving appropriate punishment, and the issue requires “high[-]level action,” according to the department’s inspector general.

Justice supervisors have mishandled complaints, the IG said, and some perpetrators were given little discipline or even later rewarded with bonuses or performance awards. At the same time, the number of allegations of sexual misconduct has been increasing over the past five years[,] and the complaints have involved senior Justice Department officials across the country.

The cases examined by the [I.G.’s] office include a U.S. attorney who had a sexual relationship with a subordinate and sent harassing texts and emails when it ended…

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Several illegal immigrant criminals set to be deported from the United States will start the New Year with a fresh lease on life after liberal governors pardoned their crimes to snub the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pardoned 61 people this week ahead of the New Year, including 18 illegal immigrant criminals awaiting deportation for “low-level” offenses, according to The Hill.

Cuomo’s pardons excused the behavior of 53-year-old Freddy Perez, who was convicted of selling drugs in 1993, as well as Lorena Borjas, a 57-year-old transgender woman activist from Mexico who was convicted of criminal facilitation for human trafficking in 1994…

South Korea said Friday that it was holding a Hong Kong-flagged ship and its crew members for allegedly violating U.N. sanctions by transferring oil to a North Korean vessel in October.

The Lighthouse Winmore is believed to have transferred about 600 tons of refined petroleum products to the North Korean ship, the Sam Jong 2, in international waters on Oct. 19, after leaving the South Korean port of Yeosu, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said.

South Korean customs authorities boarded the ship and interviewed crew members after they returned to Yeosu on Nov. 24. South Korea formally seized the ship after the U.N. Security Council on Dec. 22 imposed new sanctions on North Korea that allow member states to seize, inspect and freeze vessels that are suspected of transferring banned goods to or from North Korea, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office rules.

The ship’s 25 crew members are being held at Yeosu but will be allowed to leave South Korea after authorities are finished investigating them, the official said…

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A former Pennsylvania judge, who resigned due to a sex scandal and and “ticket-fixing” scam, and who was later jailed for lying to the FBI, is now running for Congress as a Democrat.

Thanks to Pennsylvania law, which allows convicts to run for office, Willie Singletary is now a candidate for Congress, using the slogan, “A Fresh Start for Pennsylvania.”

From Breitbart:

A former Philadelphia judge who was caught up in a ticket-fixing scandal, resigned over charges of sexual harassment, and was jailed for lying to the FBI, is now running for Congress as a Democrat with the slogan “A Fresh Start for Pennsylvania.”

Willie Singletary, a former Philadelphia Traffic Court judge, has announced his run for the First District seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Robert Brady…

A man in Taiwan was reportedly rushed to hospital on Boxing Day after his wife chewed off one of his testicles during an aggressive lovemaking session.

When paramedics arrived at the couple’s home, they apparently saw the 51-year-old man, surnamed Wang, wearing a robe and holding his severed testicle in a rice bowl while the wife repeatedly explained: ‘I accidentally bit it off!’

Taiwan news website Apple Daily reported that the mans’ right ball had been ripped off by his wife surnamed Hsieh, 49.

Hsieh called an ambulance to the home at around 2am on December 26.

Apple Daily reported that Wang works at a car repair shop. He and Hsieh have married for many years and have two children.

Paramedics said the panicking couple were waiting for them at the entrance of their flat in Taichung City in West Taiwan…

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Roy Moore’s election campaign on Wednesday formally challenged the Republican’s loss to Democrat Doug Jones in Alabama’s Senate race, according to a statement from his bid.

Moore’s campaign filed a complaint to have the election’s certification delayed “until a full investigation of voter fraud is conducted.”

“This is not a Republican or Democrat issue as election integrity should matter to everyone,” Moore said Wednesday, according to AL.com.

“We call on Secretary of State [John] Merrill [R] to delay certification until there is a thorough investigation of what three independent election experts agree took place: election fraud sufficient to overturn the outcome of the election,” he added…

The Democrat National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign were served with a FEC complaint last Monday. The complaint alleges Clinton and the DNC used state chapters as straw men to go around campaign donation limits, ultimately ‘laundering,’ the funds to her presidential campaign.

Dan Backer, the general counsel behind the complaint, believes the scheme mimicked a money laundering operation.

Backer wrote in Investor’s Business Daily:

The Committee to Defend the President has filed an FEC complaint against Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Democratic National Committee (DNC), Democratic state parties and Democratic mega-donors. […]

HVF solicited six-figure donations from major donors, including Calvin Klein and “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane, and routed them through state parties en route to the Clinton campaign…

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Students at Merrimack College, the North Andover-based school that bills itself as “a selective, independent college in the Catholic, Augustinian tradition,” can now opt to major in social justice.

Merrimack’s offering of a social justice major was first reported Wednesday by CampusReform.org, a right-of-center website that focuses on college and university issues. The school has not yet responded to multiple inquiries.

“The social justice program provides students at Merrimack College with the chance to turn their passion for change, human rights and a more just world into a career,” a description of the program, accessible via the school’s website, states…

Our 2017 year-end fundraising campaign runs through Dec. 31, so please consider a tax-deductible donation of any amount to help us continue to publish the best campus news in the nation. Thanks for your support!

Over the last year, it seems as if more campus hate crimes turned out to be hoaxes than legitimate acts of hate. Schools tended to be fertile ground for overzealous students looking to prove there is hate where none exists. These 17 examples show 2017 continued to be a year in which hate-crime hoaxes are an epidemic with no end in sight.

Some anecdotes are fallout from post-election antics spawned in late November 2016 in the wake of the Donald Trump presidency. The rest originated in apparent desperate attempts to push a progressive narrative.

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There are many reasons why the entire Trump – Russia investigation is a farce. One major reason is the fact that Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Former FBI Director James Comey have a relationship that taints the investigation.

The fact that they met secretly before Comey’s testimony to Congress in June is enough evidence to contaminate the entire investigation. At the very least Mueller should have recused himself months ago.

Back in May after crooked Comey was fired by President Trump, Comey was asked to appear in front of Congress. Comey however, postponed his meeting with Congress because he wanted to meet with Special Counsel and best friend Robert Mueller before appearing in front of the Senate…

The U.S.-led military campaign under command of President Donald Trump has made dramatic progress against ISIS in 2017.

ISIS retains historically low numbers of fighters, controls little territory and has lost much of its command and control facilities in Iraq and Syria. The vast majority of the military progress against the group occurred in 2017.

“During 2017 over 60,000 square kilometers were liberated from ISIS across Iraq and Syria,” British Army Maj. Gen. Felix Gedney told the Pentagon press corps Wednesday, explaining that “more than 98 percent of the land once claimed by the terrorist group has been returned to the people.” This estimate means ISIS lost nearly 60 percent of the territory it once controlled in 2017.

Gedney added that 4.5 million Iraqis and Syrians were liberated from ISIS by the U.S.-backed coalition in 2017 out of the 7.7 million total since the military campaign began in 2017…

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According to South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo, U.S. recon satellites have photographed around 30 illegal transactions involving Chinese vessels selling oil to North Korea on the West Sea in October. The images allegedly showed large Chinese and North Korean ships transacting in oil in a part of the West Sea closer to China than South Korea. The satellite pictures even showed the names of the ships.

A government source said, “We need to focus on the fact that the illicit trade started after a UN Security Council resolution in September drastically capped North Korea’s imports of refined petroleum products.” Meanwhile, on paper, China’s trade with North has recently collapsed after U.S. President Donald Trump unleashed a barrage of sanctions in September targeting North Korea’s imports of refined petroleum products…

There are an estimated 4.5 million United States-born children who were given birthright citizenship despite at least one of their parents being an illegal alien. These children are commonly known as “anchor babies,” as they are able to eventually bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the U.S. through the process known as “chain migration.”

A new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report reveals the extent to which the illegal alien population in the U.S. has had children that are given automatic citizenship simply for being born within the borders of the country.

According to the CBO, there are 4.5 million anchor babies in the U.S. under the age of 18-years-old. This estimate does not include the potentially millions of anchor babies who are older than 18-years-old.

Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) Director of Policy Jessica Vaughan told Breitbart News that there are more anchor babies than estimated because the CBO data does not include the U.S.-born children who have departed the country when their parents were deported…

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If there’s any state in the union that is most assuredly “blue,” it’s California. Outside of a single Republican governor – Arnold Schwarzenegger – and a handful of state and federal legislators in northern and far southern counties, Democrats hold nearly every elected office in the state.

But according to Politico, a burgeoning sexual harassment scandal is roiling the state’s Democratic ranks and a series of “scandal-induced resignations” thought to be coming in 2018 are threatening the Democrats’ stranglehold on power.

“We’re in unchartered territory here,” Garry South, a veteran Democratic strategist told the political news outlet. “This whole issue has hit a critical mass in a very short time. I’ve never seen anything like it before – and I don’t know where it ends.”…

Federal agents discovered four preserved fetuses in the Detroit warehouse of a man who sold human body parts, confidential photographs reviewed by Reuters show.

The fetuses were found during a December 2013 raid of businessman Arthur Rathburn’s warehouse. The fetuses, which appear to have been in their second trimester, were submerged in a liquid that included human brain tissue.

Rathburn, a former body broker, is accused of defrauding customers by sending them diseased body parts. He has pleaded not guilty and his trial is set for January.

How Rathburn acquired the fetuses and what he intended to do with them is unclear. Rathburn’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment, and neither the indictment nor other documents made public in his case mention the fetuses.

“This needs to be reviewed,” said U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee who recently chaired a special U.S. House committee on the use of fetal tissue…

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As the Christmas holiday weekend set in, the Senate Rules and Administration Committee released a report revealing the Senate has spent $1.5 million on workplace harassment settlements since 1998.

The data, provided by the Office of Compliance, provides little by way of details, beyond an itemized list of violations and the corresponding settlement. GOP Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, who chairs the Rules Committee, said further particulars cannot be made public, in order to respect the confidentiality afforded to victims.

“While the Rules Committee has been eager to provide this information in a transparent manner, it has been our priority to protect the victims involved in these settlements from further harm,” the senator said in a statement attending the report…

Retailers are reporting record holiday sales this season of $598 billion as of Christmas Eve, fueled by confidence in the pro-business, pro-jobs economic polices of President Donald Trump of cutting Obama-era regulations and enacting major tax cuts and reforms. Yet media reports by CBS, AP and the Wall Street Journal all failed to mention President Trump in their reports on the record sales.

The Drudge Report however is leading Monday night with a photo and headline crediting Trump with the boom in sales over a link to the WSJ article that doesn’t credit Trump, “GREAT AGAIN: RETAILERS FEEL CHRISTMAS CHEER”

CBS News reported Monday night without mentioning Trump at all:

Total retail sales this holiday season added up to a record $598 billion dollars – up $33 billion from last year.

“This is literally the best season since before the recession,” business owner Craig Johnson said. Johnson’s company, Customer Growth Partners, analyzes all things retail…

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A Democratic congressional candidate in Virginia has been indicted on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and theft for allegedly stealing government funds from a school nutrition program in 2012.

Shaun Brown, 58, denied any wrongdoing during her first appearance in a Norfolk courtroom last week and said after the hearing that she intends to fight the charges.

Prosecutors said Brown fraudulently obtained $803,000 of government funds through her nonprofit organization, which participated in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Summer Food Service Program. The organization worked with the USDA Summer Food Service Program to provide meals to low-income children on school breaks…

Several Seattle employees of both Google and Amazon were busted after using their corporate accounts to send emails to local brothels and pimps looking to purchase services from sex workers trafficked from Asia, according to emails obtained by Newsweek.

“[E]mails obtained by Newsweek reveal another sordid corner of the tech sector’s treatment of women: a horny nest of prostitution “hobbyists” at tech giants Microsoft, Amazon and other firms in Seattle’s high tech alley.”

Many of the emails were swept up in a 2015 sting operation which targeted online chat rooms and message boards in which customers rate sex workers – resulting in the arrest of 18 of these “prostitution hobbyists,” including several high level Amazon and Microsoft directors – two of which are currently scheduled for trial in March.

Seattle brothels had been catering to Microsoft employees through several “backpage.com” ads located nearby the company’s Redmond, WA headquarters, in what is becoming a booming business…

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A topless activist from the feminist group Femen tried to snatch the statue of the baby Jesus from the Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square on Monday but was stopped by police as she grabbed it.

A Reuters photographer said the woman jumped over guard rails and rushed onto the larger-than-life Nativity scene shouting “God is woman”. She had the same slogan painted on her bare back. A Vatican gendarme stopped her from taking the statue and she was detained.

The incident happened about two hours before Pope Francis delivered his Christmas message to some 50,000 people in the square. The group’s website identified her as Alisa Vinogradova and called her a “sextremist”. It says the goal of the group, which was founded in Ukraine, is “complete victory over patriarchy”…

Nikki Haley, United States Ambassador to the United Nations (U.N.), announced Sunday night that the federal government has reduced its contribution to the U.N.’s annual budget by 285 million dollars.

The Christmas Eve statement reads in full:

Today, the United Nations agreed on a budget for the 2018-2019 fiscal year. ‎Among a host of other successes, the United States negotiated a reduction of over $285 million off the 2016-2017 final budget. In addition to these significant cost savings, we reduced the UN’s bloated management and support functions, bolstered support for key U.S. priorities throughout the world, and instilled more discipline and accountability throughout the UN system. This historic reduction in spending is a big step in the right direction…

“The inefficiency and overspending of the United Nations are well known. We will no longer let the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of or remain unchecked…

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Donald Trump is spending Christmas at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, or as he calls it, “The Winter White House.”

Being in sunny Florida did not stop Trump from reaching out to hundreds of members of the armed service around the globe, some in active war zones. Trump spoke via video teleconference to rooms packed full of service members stationed in Qatar, Kuwait, Guantanamo Bay and the USS Sampson in 5th Fleet OPS Underway, according to the pool report.

Trump spoke to five deployed units, one from each branch.

“I just want to wish everybody a very, very merry Christmas, we say Merry Christmas, again, very, very proudly…

The Russiagate story concocted by Hillary Clinton and the DNC, who coincidently funded Fusion GPS (the firm behind the ‘Trump dossier’ that the entire Russia election meddling is based upon), is unraveling at record speed.

Mary Jacoby, the wife of Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson, who is the man in the middle of the entire Russiagate scandal, boasted on Facebook about how ‘Russiagate,’ would not exist if it weren’t for her husband.

Tablet Magazine reports:

A Tablet investigation using public sources to trace the evolution of the now-famous dossier suggests that central elements of the Russiagate scandal emerged not from the British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s top-secret “sources” in the Russian government, but from a series of stories that Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson and his wife Mary Jacoby co-wrote for TheWall Street Journal well before Fusion GPS existed…

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Conservative commentator Ami Horowitz recently took to the streets of the “liberal Mecca” East Village to see how die-hard progressives felt about the Republican tax reform bill that Democrats have literally declared “the end of the world.”

Horowitz asked several passersby for their reaction to specific measures in the bill and, shockingly, found they they uniformly loved it – well, at least when presented as the “Bernie” tax plan.

“The Republicans recently voted on a new tax proposal, and, predictably, the Democrats didn’t like it,” says Horowitz in the intro of the digital short. “But what if they thought the Republican plan was actually Bernie Sanders’ proposal? We presented them with the Republican tax plan and pretended that it was in fact Bernie’s plan.”…

Nearly seventeen years ago, WWE President Vince McMahon saw a vision of his come to life. The career athlete-entertainer fielded a league full of irreverent and entertainment-driven football teams, known more for their charisma and how much fun they were having, as opposed to their skill.

While that experiment failed, then, with the NFL squandering its goodwill among the American sports fan at a frightening rate; the time may be right for McMahon to revive his unique football vision.

And it appears, he’s going to do just that.

McMahon has established a new company, separate from the WWE, called Alpha Entertainment. On December 16th, Alpha Entertainment filed for five new trademarks related to the XFL, the title of McMahon’s football league that he founded in 2001.

According to ESPN’s Darren Rovell, “The filings seek to trademark the XFL as a professional football league and also cover merchandise related to the league. Previous XFL trademarks were abandoned over a period of time from 2002 to ’05.”…

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Just hours after FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe delivered private testimony to the House Intelligence Committee, his boss, FBI Director Christopher Wray, announced that the bureau’s top lawyer would be leaving his post, an attempt to bring in “new blood” to an agency whose reputation has been hopelessly compromised by revelations that agents’ partisan bias may have influenced two high-profile investigations involving President Donald Trump and his former campaign rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

As the Washington Post reported, the FBI’s top lawyer, James Baker, is being reassigned. WaPo says Baker’s removal is part of Wray’s effort to assemble his own team of senior advisers while he tries to defuse allegations of partisanship that have plagued the bureau in recent months…

A federal court in New York City has dismissed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump that alleged his failure to divest from the Trump business empire violated anti-corruption provisions of the Constitution.

U.S. District Judge George Daniels, a Clinton administration appointee, ruled Thursday that the case could not proceed because the plaintiffs could not prove that Trump’s actions tangibly harmed their businesses.

The lawsuit was brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), an anti-Trump watchdog group formerly led by Clinton ally David Brock.

A number of accomplished lawyers and legal scholars participated in the effort, including Professor Laurence Tribe of Harvard Law School, Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley, and Richard Painter, an ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush White House…

Sen. Al Franken will step down on Jan. 2, a spokesman for the Minnesota Democrat said Wednesday. Franken announced earlier this month that he would resign from the Senate in the face of sexual harassment allegations. But he did not announce a date for when he would officially leave the chamber.

Franken came under fire last month after multiple women accused him of inappropriately touching them. One woman said the comedian-turned-politician forcibly kissed her and groped her during a USO tour in 2006.

The allegations against Franken prompted numerous Democrats in the Senate to call for his resignation. The Senate Ethics Committee launched a probe into the allegations last month.

In a defiant speech on the Senate floor earlier this month, Franken said he was confident that the ethics investigation would clear his name. But he said that he could not adequately represent his constituents while going through the Ethics Committee process…

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As of late, we have watched Republican lawmakers point a lot of fingers and toss out a bunch of theories as to who should be held responsible for sourcing, procuring and disseminating the discredited ‘Trump dossier.’

A new report reveals lawmakers are secretly building a criminal case against top Justice Department and FBI officials for mishandling “the contents of a dossier that describes alleged ties between President Donald Trump and Russia.”

POLITICO reports:

A group of House Republicans has gathered secretly for weeks in the Capitol in an effort to build a case that senior leaders of the Justice Department and FBI improperly mishandled the contents of a dossier…

Americans purchased homes at the fastest pace in nearly 11 years, as sales climbed 5.6% in November.

The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that sales of existing homes rose last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.81 million units. Home sales were last this strong in December 2006, when properties sold at an annual pace of 6.42 million.

The strong demand for buying homes is a sign of an increasingly vibrant economy after a steady, eight-year expansion. The unemployment rate has fallen to a 17-year low, while more people in the younger millennial generation appear to be forming their own households and looking for places to buy. Yet the demand has done little to resolve an increasing vulnerability of the U.S. real estate market as the number of listings has been declining on a yearly basis for two-and-a-half years.

In November, there were 1.67 million properties for sale, a 9.7% decline from a year ago. There is only 3.4 months’ supply of homes on the market, the lowest level ever tracked by the Realtors…

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions has instructed DOJ prosecutors to begin asking FBI agents for explanations regarding evidence pertaining to a dormant criminal investigation into the controversial Uranium One deal linked to Bill and Hillary Clinton, according to NBC.

The order comes as part of a promise made last month by Sessions to examine whether or not a special counsel was warranted in the deal which saw 20% of American Uranium sold to a Russian state-owned energy company in a 2010 transaction allowed by the Obama administration.

Prior to the deal, individual connected with Uranium One deal had donated over $140 million to the Clinton Foundation. Moreover, Bill Clinton gave a $500,000 speech to a Russian bank which issued a favorable rating on Uranium One stock…

Twitter president for public policy and communications in Europe Sinead McSweeney said that it’s “no longer possible to stand up for all speech.”

The comment came just one day after the social media giant cranked up attacks to shut down what it deems as “hateful” or “abusive” behavior.

Of course, it’s Twitter isn’t really interested in that. They are interested in silencing those that oppose their opinion and worldview, and if you don’t believe me, take a look at what they are not doing concerning the trolls who have gone after Kathy Amidon.

“I look back over last 5 1/2 years, and the answers I would have given to some of these questions five years ago were very different,” Sweeny told British politicians and other social media executives on Tuesday. “Twitter was in a place where it believed the most effective antidote to bad speech was good speech. It was very much a John Stuart Mill-style philosophy.”…

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The Boeing Co. is moving ahead on $300 million in charitable contributions and workplace investments as a response to the tax bill approved by Congress today.

The commitments were laid out in an announcement from Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing’s chairman, president and CEO. They’re well-timed to demonstrate how the bill’s cut in the corporate tax rate could encourage businesses to open their wallets wider.

“On behalf of all our stakeholders, we applaud and thank Congress and the administration for their leadership in seizing this opportunity to unleash economic energy in the United States,” Muilenburg said. “It’s the single most important thing we can do to drive innovation, support quality jobs and accelerate capital investment in our country.”…

Crediting the Republican tax plan, Fifth Third Bank said Wednesday it would boost the minimum pay for its employees to $15 per hour.

Congressional passage of the $1.5 trillion tax cut this week allowed the regional bank to re-evaluate its pay structure, Fifth Third officials said.

The pay increase will affect 3,000 hourly workers – one-out-of-six Fifth Third employees. About 13,500 workers or three-quarters of the bank’s payroll will also receive a one-time $1,000 bonus. It will be distributed by the end of the year, assuming President Trump signs the bill before Christmas.

Senior managers and executive leadership are excluded from the compensation.

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Comcast announced on Wednesday that they will distribute $1,000 bonuses to more than one hundred thousand frontline and non-executive employees and invest more than $50 billion in infrastructure investment over the next several years to celebrate Republicans passing tax reform.

Comcast announced in a statement:

Based on the passage of tax reform and the FCC’s action on broadband, Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast NBCUniversal, announced that the Company would award special $1,000 bonuses to more than one hundred thousand eligible frontline and non-executive employees. Roberts also announced that the Company expects to spend well in excess of $50 billion over the next five years investing in infrastructure…

When the residents of a city have enough income to afford both their expected and unforeseen expenses – from making the car repairs necessary to ensure dependable transportation for work to paying bills without relying on a credit card – their families, their communities, and the broader economy all benefit from that type of financial stability. Yet, many people lack the financial education to balance a budget and the banking access to securely save for the future.

That’s why, since launching in April 2012, the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund has established relationships with nearly 50 city governments across the U.S. as we work to fulfill our mission of improving the financial stability of low- and moderate-income households, including those who are “underbanked.”

In the U.S., 51 million adults – approximately 20 percent of the population – are considered underbanked, which means they have a basic checking or savings account but also rely on costly alternatives like credit cards…

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AT&T was quick to respond to news of U.S. tax reform, announcing it would give some employees bonuses once the legislation is signed into law.

The telecom giant said in a press release Wednesday that it would give more than 200,000 U.S. union members a special bonus of $1,000. The company also increased its capital expenditures budget by $1 billion in the U.S.

“Congress, working closely with the President, took a monumental step to bring taxes paid by U.S. businesses in line with the rest of the industrialized world,” CEO Randall Stephenson said in a statement. “This tax reform will drive economic growth and create good-paying jobs. In fact, we will increase our U.S. investment and pay a special bonus to our U.S. employees.”…

Seemingly confirming what Cliven Bundy’s son said during his opening statement:

“The indictment and grand jury testimony is full of lies. Truth has been blocked in previous trials.

Listen closely – we will try to get you the truth. The truth will set me free and I’m counting on you to help me see that.”

As AZCentral.com reports, Navarro cited five key pieces of information that prosecutors did not disclose: records about surveillance and snipers at the Bundy Ranch; unredacted FBI logs about activity at the ranch in the days around the standoff; threat assessments about the Bundys dating to 2012; and internal affairs reports about the BLM.

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A jubilant President Trump on Wednesday celebrated Congress’ passing of a sweeping tax-reform bill by heaping praise on Republican lawmakers and referring to them as his fellow “warriors.”

In his less than one year in office, the president memorably has sparred with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan and other lawmakers in his party.

But hours after the House handed Trump his first major legislative victory by sending a $1.5-trillion tax package to his desk, Trump expressed his thanks to the GOP legislators and portrayed the party as unified.

“All friends – I look at these people,” the president said during a celebration on the south lawn of the White House. “It’s like we’re warriors together.”…

Methane emissions from natural gas wells have dropped during the past six years, even as activists and lawmakers argue that stringent regulations are required to tackle what they believe are sky-high emission levels.

Emissions from onshore natural gas production tumbled nearly 14 million metric tons between 2011 and 2016, according to a report from Energy In Depth, which analyzed data from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. The data also found that levels had decreased even as natural gas production increased.

In the San Juan Basin, an area located in parts of New Mexico and Colorado, emissions fell by 47 percent since 2011. Activists frequently claim that San Juan’s methane hot spot releases are reason enough for bulking up rules governing emissions.

The Trump administration announced in October a two-year delay on rules designed to regulate methane, a potent greenhouse gas that scientists argue contributes to global warming…

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The Senate passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act along party lines in a vote early Wednesday morning The bill is slated to pass the House a second time Wednesday after the measure was tweaked Tuesday afternoon to comply with Senate procedural rules.

Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain was absent for the vote after being hospitalized last week due to complications from his cancer treatment.

Following the vote, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he’s proud of the legislation they crafted and is confident the country will be satisfied with changes it will make to the economy,

“My view of this is if we cant sell this to the American people we ought to move into another line of work,” he told reporters…

A man convicted of leading an Islamic State-inspired plot to behead a conservative blogger who upset Muslims when she organized a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest was sentenced Tuesday to 28 years in prison.

David Wright, who’s 28 years old, was sentenced by a judge in Boston’s federal courthouse two months after jurors found him guilty of conspiring with his uncle and a Rhode Island man to kill blogger Pamela Geller on behalf of the terror group.

Wright’s attorneys had asked for a 16-year sentence, saying he should be given the chance to redeem himself after serving his time. Wright insisted he never really wanted to hurt anyone but pretended to support the Islamic State group to get attention online.

Prosecutors and Geller wanted Wright to get life in prison. Prosecutors portrayed Wright as the leader of the conspiracy to kill Geller, who has spearheaded scores of events across the nation to decry Islamic extremism, such as the cartoon contest in Garland, Texas…

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In another major blow to Uber’s ability to operate profitably within the European Union, the EU’s highest court ruled on Wednesday that the ride-hailing app company is, in fact, a transportation company, and its drivers should be subjected to all pertinent regulations for taxi and livery-cab drivers.

The decision opens the US ride-hailing app up to tougher national regulation in Europe’s 28 member states. The judgment effectively shifts Uber’s legal status from a digital company to a transportation company, giving it less freedom from regulation in the EU’s single market, according to the Financial Times.

What’s worse, the final ruling from Luxembourg judges cannot be appealed…

A New York makeup artist who accused Donald Trump of groping her in the 1990’s – and whose mortgage was paid off by a donor arranged by Gloria Allred daughter Lisa Bloom, repeatedly solicited then-candidate Trump to become his campaign makeup artist so she could pitch her new line of men’s cosmetics, according to The Hill’s John Solomon. The story has to be true, because one couldn’t make it up if one tried.

In an October 1, 2015 email – Trump accuser Jill Harth emailed the President’s New York Company headquarters, writing:

“Hi Donald, you are doing a tremendous job of shaking things up in the United States. I am definitely on Team Trump as so many others are.”

“I can’t watch television without seeing you or hearing your name everywhere! It’s a good thing for sure but PLEASE let me do your makeup for a television interview, a debate, a photo session, anything!” Harth wrote, adding “It kills me to see you looking too orange and with white circles under the eyes. I will get your skin looking smoother and even toned.”…

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The animatronic version of President Donald Trump will finally make its debut Tuesday in the “Hall of Presidents” attraction at Walt Disney World, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

The Trump robot stands in the front of the stage beside the likes of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.

“From the beginning, America has been a nation defined by its people. At our founding, it was the American people who rose up to defend our freedoms and win our independence,” Trump shared in a recorded message. “It was why our Founders began our great Constitution with three very simple words: We the people. Since that moment, each generation of Americans has taken its place in the defense of our freedom, our flag, and our nation under God.”…

A handful of folks are really steamed that Republican lawmakers are planning to lower taxes, and they gathered in tiny conference room on Capitol Hill where House Minority Speaker Nancy Pelosi was slated to speak Monday.

But the demonstration was so weak, MSNBC reports, Pelosi didn’t even bother to show up.

“These protests have never been like what we saw with the healthcare law,” an MSNBC reporter said as a camera man panned the crowd of a couple dozen mulled about in self-scheduling conference room 2456.

“This particular protest was supposed to start at three, it was supposed to feature Nancy Pelosi, and it’s supposed to have hundreds of people, and none of those things are going to end up being true,” the reporter said.

What does seem more and more likely to come true, however, is President Donald Trump’s promise to Americans to deliver a tax cut this year…

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We’re all supposed to believe that President Trump, as a candidate, colluded with the Russian government to “steal” the 2016 election. There’s no serious evidence to that effect, despite a massive FBI investigation, a Congressional investigation, and a special counsel investigation initiated by the Department of Justice.

But there is clear evidence that the Obama administration colluded with the Russian government to free an Islamic terrorist responsible for the deaths of Americans – all in order to appease Iran to pave the way for the Obama administration’s surrender to the burgeoning Iranian nuclear program and Iran’s escalating regional ambitions.

A little-noticed bombshell report from Josh Meyer of Politico reports that Ali Fayad…

North Korea was behind the massive “WannaCry” cyberattack in May that spread around the world costing billions of dollars, White House Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert announced in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Monday.

In the article, entitled, “It’s Official: North Korea Is Behind WannaCry,” Bossert wrote that the Hermit Kingdom was the main culprit behind the May 2017 global cyberattack in which computers running Windows were targeted. During the infamous attack, data were encrypted and ransom payment, in the form of bitcoin, was demanded of users if they wanted their data back.

“Cybersecurity isn’t easy, but simple principles still apply. Accountability is one, cooperation another,” Bossert’s op-ed read. “They are the cornerstones of security and resilience in any society. In furtherance of both, and after careful investigation, the U.S. today publicly attributes the massive ‘WannaCry’ cyber attack to North Korea.”…

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The Dow Jones industrial average just did something it has never done in its 121-year history.

The 30-stock average is now up more than 5,000 points in a year, marking its biggest annual-points gain ever. This following a 140-point rally Monday which sent it to an all-time high.

The Dow also notched a record close for the 70th time this year, which is another milestone. To put that into perspective, it means that about one of every four trading sessions this year has been a record close for the index.

The Dow, along with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite, has had a banner year, rising 25.5 percent. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are up 20.2 percent and 29.9 percent, respectively.

To be sure, most of the big point moves are in recent years for an obvious reason…

An investigation into the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) handling of the 2014 Nevada standoff with rancher Cliven Bundy revealed “incredible bias,” widespread misconduct and likely illegal actions by the BLM.

Prosecutors shared the report with the Bundys’ defense attorneys, prompting a petition to Judge Gloria Navarro for a mistrial, or for the case to be dismissed altogether, The Oregonian reports. Navarro’s judgement is expected to come down Wednesday.

“It’s time for our men to go home and start making a living for their families,” Carol Bundy, Cliven Bundy’s wife, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “We’re two years behind. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

The investigation’s report, made by BLM Special Agent Larry Wooten and addressed to the Department of Justice, was publicized last week after Washington state Rep. Matt Shea posted it on his Facebook page, according to The Wall Street Journal…

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Former U.S. representative and FOX News contributor Jason Chaffetz on Monday once again called on failed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign. Chaffetz joined Judge Jeanine Pirro and Attorney Gregg Jarrett on Hannity on Monday night.

Jason Chaffetz: Some people suggested there be a second special counsel. How’s that first one working out? I wouldn’t do a second one. I really do believe that it’s time for Attorney General Sessions to go. I don’t think he’s up for the job. Every time I see him he looks like he’s some prisoner. And the only reason we have a special counsel is because we have an Attorney General who can’t do his job.

We have been writing for several weeks now that Jeff Sessions is compromised…

Mayors from seven major French cities overwhelmed by the flow of migrants, have written a joint letter to Paris published in LeMonde on Saturday, begging the government to step in and help.

According to the letter, the cities of Lille, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Grenoble, Rennes, Toulousa and Nantes are taking in “several thousand” refugees per month, which the mayors say is causing a social emergency as they are “backed up against a wall” and “completely saturated” by a seemingly endless flood of asylum seekers.

The year 2017 ends with a massive rise in the demand for asylum and the arrival of newcomers puts extreme tension -particularly with the onset of the cold wave -of the classic public and institutional policies.

In a proportion never before known, the mechanisms allocated to housing asylum seekers, led by the State, often with the support of our communities, are indeed completely saturated…

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President Trump on Monday unveiled a national security strategy that enshrines his “America First” approach into U.S. policy, stressing American strength and economic security and putting rivals like China and Russia on notice.

“America is in the game and America is going to win,” Trump said, making clear that the United States will stand up for itself even if that means acting unilaterally or alienating others on issues such as trade, climate change and immigration.

In a 20-minute speech, Trump said the U.S. faces “an extraordinarily dangerous world” and one of his goals is to make sure the U.S. is “leading again on the world stage.”

On Monday morning, an Amtrak train derailed while crossing an overpass in Dupont, Washington. Law enforcement say at least six people are dead and 78 others were injured.

Independent journalist Mike Cernovich tweeted an archived link to a now deleted article from “prominent,” far-left website It’s Going Down, on an ANTIFA group bragging about pouring concrete on train tracks in Olympia, WA.

The story is from April, but a more recent post from another far-left website, published just 9 days ago, is still up.

Olympia is a 20 minute drive from Dupont.

In late November, ANTIFA sabotaged a train in Olympia.

Police raided an ANTIFA encampment in Olympi following a train being sabotaged by anti-fracking activists – but the anarchists claiming credit for the act have vowed to continue until “every officer is down.”…

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Well, well, well – what have we here? As thousands of Atlanta’s airport passengers found themselves stranded due to a power outage in what was for many an unfamiliar airport, who should come out to feed them for free, making their hellish travel ordeal a bit less hellish?

Sure enough, it was Chick-fil-A, the delicious chicken fast food chain that was otherwise branded “hate chicken” by rabid leftists during a 2012 flap over marriage and the company owners’ unwillingness to support opening up the institution to same-sex couples.

Late Sunday night, while Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport worked to restore power during a massive outage that crippled air travel at the nation’s busiest airport, officials handed out Chick-fil-A and waters to stranded passengers…

The Trump administration will designate domestic U.S. missile defense as a “priority action” as part of its forthcoming National Security Strategy, or NSS, according to draft language viewed by the Washington Free Beacon that singles out Iranian and North Korean missile threats as a direct danger to the American homeland.

Trump’s national security vision, which will be presented later Monday in the NSS, will focus in part on enhanced missile defense in the United States in order to combat possible attacks by North Korea and Iran on the American homeland, according to draft portions of the NSS exclusively viewed by the Free Beacon.

The focus on missile defense comes as Iran and North Korea work independently – and in conjunction – to boost the power and range of their missiles, particularly their intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

The Trump administration recognizes in its NSS that the threat from these missile programs is growing and that the United States must take proactive measures to bolster its defenses…

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The Obama administration protected members of notorious terror group Hezbollah from prosecution to save the Iran nuclear deal, a new report claims.

A team at the Drug Enforcement Administration had been working for almost a decade to bring down the Lebanon-based militant organization’s sophisticated $1 billion-a-year drug ring – which it found was smuggling cocaine into the U.S. and laundering the profits by buying used cars stateside and shipping them to Africa for resale, Politico reports.

But the departments of Justice and Treasury delayed and rejected prosecution and sanctions requests from the team that had exposed the Iran-backed criminal network because the Obama White House feared “rocking the boat” with Tehran ahead of the deal, the site reports…

The city of Minneapolis may fire its police psychology evaluator because his tests screened out too many minority candidates, despite already lowering psych evaluations far below the national standard.

The July police shooting of Justine Damond triggered the city to scrutinize its psychological standards for police, with many claiming they’d become lax.

Psychiatrist Thomas Gratzer has run psych testing for the Minneapolis police for the past five years, and in that time, he has eliminated four of the five tests used to determine whether a candidate is fit to be an officer, APM reported Thursday. Now, Gratzer is facing firing not for gutting his standard, but for screening out too many minorities.

Mohamed Noor, the officer who shot Damond, is Somali and was one of 200 cops approved by Gratzer’s standards over the past five years, which were already far below the national standard…

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The anti-immigration Austrian People’s Party and the anti-establishment Austrian Freedom Party have reached a deal, creating a new coalition to govern Austria for the next five years.

The ground-breaking political alliance, which will be sworn into office on December 18, is poised to catapult Austria to the vanguard of Western Europe’s resistance to mass migration from the Muslim world.

Chancellor-elect Sebastian Kurz, 31, who won Austria’s national election on October 15 after campaigning on a promise to halt illegal immigration, will govern with Heinz-Christian Strache, 48, the Freedom Party leader, who has warned that mass migration is “Islamizing” Austria.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called President Trump Sunday to thank the U.S. for intelligence that helped to avert an ISIS bombing of targets in St. Petersburg – Putin’s hometown – including the city’s landmark 19th century Kazan Cathedral.

The White House said in a readout that a CIA tipoff had prevented an attack that was imminent and may have been deadly.

“Based on the information the United States provided, Russian authorities were able to capture the terrorists just prior to an attack that could have killed large numbers of people,” it said. “No Russian lives were lost and the terrorist attackers were caught and are now incarcerated,” the White House said.

“President Trump appreciated the call and told President Putin that he and the entire United States intelligence community were pleased to have helped save so many lives.”

The phone call came two days after Russia’s Federal Security Service announced the arrests of seven people…

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The violence in Chicago is so out of control, a local leader is ignoring federal offers for help and making an appeal to the world to do something.

Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin flew to New York to meet with representatives of the United Nations on Thursday and reportedly talked about the world body deploying people to help with “peace keeping efforts” on U.S. soil.

“Look, this gun violence in Chicago is still out of control. Quite frankly, we’ve got too many young people of color who are being killed by gun violence. And of course it’s a genocide that’s not being talked about nationwide or even here in Chicago,” Boykin tells CLTV.

While CLTV reports Boykin isn’t “getting specific” about what the UN can do…

A liberal editor who bashed the GOP just got fired for alleged sexual harassment, according to a Friday report.

Stephen Henderson, the managing director of opinion and commentary at The Detroit Free Press and a Pulitzer Prize Winner, was fired for alleged sexual misconduct, the outlet reported. Henderson is accused of sexual harassment to women over the years following the results of an internal investigation.

“This is a devastatingly sad day for us at the Free Press. Stephen is a magnificent journalist and a treasured colleague who has done so much for Detroit,” said Free Press editor and Vice President Peter Bhatia. Henderson won a Pulitzer Price in 2014.

One day prior to Henderson’s termination, he wrote an op-ed for the Free Press, bashing the GOP and saying, “The party is willing to indulge just about any repugnant point of view in a candidate or public official – racism, religious discrimination, disrespect for the Constitution – in order to achieve its political aims.”…

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Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team has taken possession of “many tens of thousands” of emails from the Trump transition team, obtained through the General Services Administration – the government agency responsible for hosting the transition email system which used a “ptt.gov” address, and which according to a Trump lawyer were improperly obtained through “unlawful conduct.”

The trove of documents, which includes sensitive emails to and from Trump son-in-law and top advisor Jared Kushner, comprise 12 email accounts – one of which reportedly contains around 7,000 emails. Mueller’s team has reportedly been using the emails as the basis for witness interviews, sources tell Axios…

The official White House website is getting a facelift – one that could save American taxpayers as much $3 million annually.

A newly designed WhiteHouse.gov will launch early Friday, ending a months-long reconstruction process that aimed to bring the Trump administration’s digital presence up to current standards, a White House official said Thursday.

“The old site was a good temporary measure that allowed us to use what the previous administration had built, but it wasn’t where it needed to be in terms of providing people with content they can easily access,” the official said.

The updated website will feature enhanced search tools, making it easier for visitors to filter content by date or topic. It will also provide “in-depth policy updates” and appear “much cleaner,” according to the official.

“It adapts the U.S. web design standards and uses a style that is clean, simple and presidential,” the official said…

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President Donald Trump called Friday for reforming and strictly enforcing immigration law, in light of the failed terror attack in New York and increased crime across the country committed by violent gangs.

Trump said he had directed federal law enforcement to work with local police to “destroy criminal cartels, like the savages of MS-13,” and that this year there has been a 83 percent increase in arrests of MS-13 members and associates.

A ranching family is celebrating a decision that hands the federal government a loss and them victory in a dispute over access to natural water sources on federal lands on which they’ve been grazing livestock since the 1800s.

The details of the victory for the Sacramento Grazing Association, a ranching company owned by James and Frances Goss, were outlined by the Heartland Institute.

The ranching company dates back to 1885, but in the 1980s, the U.S. Forest Service started fencing off some water sources, sources the SGA long had used, in the Lincoln National Forest to protect a species of thistle called the Sacramento Mountains Thistle.

“Throughout the 1990s, SGA and USFS battled and negotiated over SGA’s right to continue using the water. In 2004, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a biological opinion recommending livestock be permanently excluded from fenced-off areas on the forest’s Sacramento Allotment, in order to protect the endangered species…

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The Trump administration will reverse course from previous Obama administration policy, eliminating climate change from a list of national security threats.

The National Security Strategy to be released on Monday will emphasize the importance of balancing energy security with economic development and environmental protection, according to a source who has seen the document and shared excerpts of a late draft.

“Climate policies will continue to shape the global energy system,” a draft of the National Security Strategy slated to be released on Monday said.

“U.S. leadership is indispensable to countering an anti-growth, energy agenda that is detrimental to U.S. economic and energy security interests…

President Donald Trump is placing new focus on targeting China’s exploitation of the international trade system, putting the issue front-and-center in his newly released National Security Strategy, according to new information obtained by the Washington Free Beacon and multiple sources briefed on previously unreported details of the administration’s new policy.

As part of Trump’s newly issued strategy to tackle pressing national security priorities, in a document known as the NSS, the White House is planning efforts to combat China’s longstanding practices to exploit the international trade system and harm the U.S. economic stature, according to these sources, who said the plan places renewed focus on the ties between economic security and national security.

The Free Beacon was briefed about this previously unreported portion of the NSS ahead of the formal unveiling of the plan scheduled for Monday. Trump, a vocal critic of China’s unfair trade policies, is said to have directed senior White House national security officials to target China and other countries who exploit the international trade system…

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Andrea Ramsey, a Democratic candidate for Congress, will drop out of the race after the Kansas City Star asked her about accusations in a 2005 lawsuit that she sexually harassed and retaliated against a male subordinate who said he had rejected her advances.

Multiple sources with knowledge of the case told The Star that the man reached a settlement with LabOne, the company where Ramsey was executive vice president of human resources. Court documents show that the man, Gary Funkhouser, and LabOne agreed to dismiss the case permanently after mediation in 2006.

Ramsey, a 56-year-old retired business executive from Leawood, was one of the Democratic candidates vying to challenge Republican Rep. Kevin Yoder in 2018 in Kansas’ 3rd District…

Rahm Emanuel is working hard in the city of Chicago. Only, he’s not working for Americans, or the black community being slaughtered in the streets. No. He’s working overtime for illegals and people he calls on the “sidelines.”

Champion of the illegals Rahm just unveiled a fancy new Chicago ID card for illegals, which will cost taxpayers $1 million this year, and next year. Imagine how many LEGAL AMERICANS he could help with that money.

From Fox News

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has officially unveiled a new ID program he says is designed to welcome the “undocumented” community and people “on the sidelines” into the city.

“If you want somebody who’s undocumented to feel comfortable to be able to drive their child to school and all the benefits, they have to be part of the city.” – Mayor Rahm Emanuel, on the new Chicago IDs…

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Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) likes to think of herself as a champion of women. After multiple women came forward to accuse fellow Democrat Senator Al Franken of sexual assault (photos were also supplied as evidence of one of the accuser’s claims), Gillibrand finally called for Franken to step down.

Was Gillibrand’s call for her fellow Senator to step down part of a larger plan to appear neutral, as she then attacked President Donald Trump for unfounded allegations against him only months before the election?

Isn’t it kind of hypocritical for Gillibrand to call anyone out of sexual misconduct after she fought to bring a Muslim athlete to upstate New York who molested an innocent 12-year old girl while he was in America?…

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has discovered that edits made to former FBI Director James Comey’s statement exonerating Hillary Clinton for transmitting classified info over an unsecured, private email server went far beyond what was previously known, as detailed in a Thursday letter from committee chairman Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) to FBI Director Christopher Wray.

The letter reveals specific edits made by senior FBI agents when Deputy Director Andrew McCabe exchanged drafts of Comey’s statement with senior FBI officials, including Peter Strzok, Strzok’s direct supervisor, E.W. “Bill” Priestap, Jonathan Moffa, and an unnamed employee from the Office of General Counsel (identified by Newsweek as DOJ Deputy General Counsel Trisha Anderson) – in what was a coordinated conspiracy among top FBI brass to decriminalize Clinton’s conduct by changing legal terms and phrases, omitting key information, and minimizing the role of the Intelligence Community in the email investigation…

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In what may have been the biggest political upset since the election of President Donald Trump over opponent Hillary Clinton, Democrat U.S. senatorial candidate Doug Jones overcame opponent Roy Moore by less than two percentage points in Tuesday’s special election. But his win might not be as impressive as it seems.

According to a report by AL.com, an Alabama-focused news organization, Jones may have been propelled to power by thousands of violent felons and career thieves who were registered to vote at the last minute through a massive liberal-funded effort.

The Democratic takeover of the traditionally-Republican stronghold of Alabama by means of felon voters is crucial since Jones’s election is set to potentially upend the GOP’s entire national agenda…

Legalizing 2 million illegal immigrant “Dreamers” would cost the government $25.9 billion over the next decade, as those now-legal people would claim more tax, education and other benefits they haven’t been able to get before, the Congressional Budget Office said Friday.

The CBO also said newly legalized Dreamers would sponsor 80,000 more immigrants to enter the country as part of “chain migration.”

Immigrant-rights activists have argued that legalizing Dreamers would be a financial boon to the country, but the CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation suggested otherwise, saying that while they would pay somewhat higher taxes in to the government, they would take far more out of it.

The findings could be a blow to activists who have demanded the bill be included in any year-end spending deal. Congress already struggles to find offsets for other spending, and digging a hole more than $25 billion deeper could be difficult…

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The Dow ended up again today at another all-time high for the 69th time this year – matching the record for a calendar year set in 1995. At the bell the Dow closed at its highest closing amount ever at 24,651. Since last year’s election the Dow is up over 34%!

* The Dow has increased more that 6,300 points since the November 8th election a year ago when the Dow closed at 18,333. This is the largest point increase in this amount of time in Dow history. This has never happened in the more than 100 years in the Dow.

* The Dow has increased more in 2017 than any year ever in Dow history! The Dow ended 2016 at 19,763 and has increased by more than 4,800 points through today. This is the most ever by more than 36% over the next best year ever…

The NFL has struggled mightily this year to get people to watch their primetime games, as the ratings from the Week 15 edition of Thursday Night Football continue to come in, it’s clear that those struggles will continue until the end of the year.

The clash between the Denver Broncos and the Indianapolis Colts drew only a 7.4/13 rating in metered markets. That poor showing resulted in a new season low for TNF on both CBS and NBC and simulcast on NFL Network.

According to Deadline Hollywood, “Looking at the close December 7 game between the Atlanta Falcons and the New Orleans Saints, last night’s TNF was down 27% in the early ratings. That Falcons’ win went on to deliver a 4.3/17 rating among adults 18-49 and 14.61 million viewers.

“In what has been a slippery season in the ratings for the NFL and broadcasters on the Big 4 and cable, last night’s TNF fell 26% in MM from the TNF of December 15, 2016. In the final numbers, that Seahawks win drew a 4.3/16 in the key demo and a total audience of 14.65 million.”…

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Legal powerhouse Lisa Bloom tried to line up big paydays for women who were willing to accuse President Trump of sexual misconduct during the final months of last year’s election, according to an explosive report.

The Hill reported Friday that Bloom worked with campaign donors and tabloid media outlets to arrange compensation for the alleged victims and a commission for herself, offering to sell their stories.

In one case, Bloom reportedly arranged for a donor to pay off one Trump accuser’s mortgage and attempted to score a six-figure payment for another woman. The former ultimately declined to come forward after being offered $750,000, the clients told The Hill…

President Donald Trump broke the all-time record on first-year judicial appointments to the federal appeals courts on Thursday, as the Senate confirmed James Ho to the U.S. Court of Appeals to the Fifth Circuit, a nominee notable as a racial minority who is outspoken on the importance of constitutional conservatism.

Senators voted 53-43 to confirm Ho of the Fifth Circuit, which has jurisdiction over Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Democrats voted overwhelming against Ho, as they have done for all of President Trump’s nominees to the appeals courts.

Unlike some judicial nominees, Ho is assertive and unapologetic about his adherence to originalism – the judicial philosophy that the Constitution must always be interpreted according to the original public meaning of its words.

When senators asked him if he was an originalist, instead of the verbal tap-dance many nominees do to avoid that hot-button term, he answered bluntly, “Yes, I am an originalist.”…

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The Federal Communications Commission has jettisoned the heavy-handed regulatory burden placed on a free and open Internet during the Obama administration. The FCC voted 3-2 on December 14th, along party lines, to repeal the so-called “net neutrality” rules adopted by the regulatory agency in 2015.

The Obama-era rules had prohibited Internet service providers, such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast as well as smaller Internet service providers, from blocking, slowing access to or charging more (priority pricing) for fast delivery of content above some specified threshold of high bandwidth usage.

High-speed delivery of Internet services will no longer be heavily regulated on par with a common carrier utility monopoly service…

An entire family – man, woman, son and daughter – in Arizona is transgender.

The father identifies as a woman. His fiancée, the mother-to-be, identifies as a man. The son considers himself a girl and, of course, the daughter thinks she’s actually a boy. An entire transgender family, all under one roof.

Daniel Harrott was born a woman, while his fiancée, Shirley Austin was born a man. Both have previously been married. 11-year-old Mason and 13-year-old Joshua have also switched sexes.

“The whole family is in transition,” Austin said in an interview with KJZZ, which reports the two adults are teaching each other to adopt “traditional” gender roles:

“Shirley taught Daniel how to use a chainsaw. Daniel taught Shirley to memorize all the stones in her engagement ring, in case another woman asks. Daniel does the yard work. Shirley, the cooking.

“Daniel explained that they’re actually ‘very traditional’ people, who really see each other.”…

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An investigative reporter with The Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) announced on Friday that Congress’ human resources scandal is about to break wide-open and predicted that over a dozen members of the House of Representatives will resign.

DCNF reporter Luke Rosiak tweeted on Friday: “Congress’ human resources scandal is just getting started. I anticipate we will see the resignation of more than a dozen House members over harassment and secret settlements, and soon.” Rosiak followed that tweet with another, writing: “Mark my words, the House is going to be rocked in the coming 72 hours. Tick Tock.”

Last week Rosiak broke the story that Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) had made a settlement with a former congressional aide that he fired after she reported being sexually assaulted…

The Trump economic boom is picking up steam as American heads into the final weeks of the president’s first year in office.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Nowcast, which attempts to estimate economic output based on the latest releases of data, now says GDP appears to be growing at a 4% annualized rate in the fourth quarter. That is the highest level on record for the Nowcast, which was launched just two years ago.

The Nowcast was revised up primarily due to positive impacts of revisions of earlier data, the New York Fed’s website said Friday. A similar tool from the Atlanta Fed was also revised up earlier this week to 3.3 percent. The Atlanta Fed measure has a track record of being considerably more pessimistic about growth than the New York Fed’s Nowcast.

If the Nowcast turns out to be on track, the fourth quarter will see the economy grow far more than most major forecasts had expected…

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House Speaker Paul Ryan laughed away speculation that he plans to quit his post after Congress passes tax reform and said next year’s agenda will include legislation to transform the nation’s welfare program into one that can move more people from dependency on government into the workforce.

“Next year is going to be the year where we work on people,” Ryan told reporters who asked about his welfare reform plan at his weekly news conference. “Next year is the year we work on getting people where they need to get in life, in better jobs, an actual career, closing the skills gap.”

Ryan has pledged to his largest faction of conservatives that the House would tackle entitlement reform in 2018 with a welfare-to-work proposal…

Greece’s Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Russian national Aleksandr Vinnik, the purported mastermind of what U.S. authorities have described as a $4 billion bitcoin money laundering operation, to avoid extradition to the U.S., where he has been indicted – along with his former company, mysterious digital currency exchange BTC-e – on nearly two dozen felony counts, including fraud and money laundering.

Russia, where Vinnik is accused of stealing 600,000 rubles ($10,500) from an unidentified entity “using… deception and the internet,” also requested extradition. The competing request had earlier been approved by another court ruling, but the final decision on the matter will be made by the Greek Minister of Justice.

Russia criticized the court’s first decision as unjust and illegal, saying that its request “takes precedence [over another country’s] as Vinnik is a citizen of the Russian Federation.”

“The Supreme Court’s decision was expected, it is a decision on an appeal on the same decision of the Thessaloniki court…

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A New York appeals court tossed out a $4 million defamation suit against President Donald Trump from a Republican consultant alleging that the president damaged her career by calling her a “real dummy” on Twitter.

The five-judge panel on the Manhattan appeals court, the Appellate Division First Department, ruled that a lower court’s January decision to dismiss Cheri Jacobus’s lawsuit should stand.

The court noted that the lawsuit “was correctly dismissed in the absence of actionable factual allegations that tended to disparage her in the way of her profession, trade or business.”

The court added that the alleged statements against Trump were “too vague, subjective, and lacking in precise meaning.”…

Let’s first remember that PBS Host Tavis Smiley is as Anti-Trump as you can get. He claimed the day after the 2016 election that “hatred and revenge” won and Trump’s victory was also a win for “racism,” “sexism,” and “classism.”

Fast forward to today. Smiley has been suspended indefinitely for credible sexual misconduct allegations with multiple eyewitnesses. urns out the moral crusader and race baiter was just another liberal hypocrite.

From TheWrap

PBS has “indefinitely” suspended Tavis Smiley’s talk show program after sexual misconduct allegations against the host.

“Effective today, PBS has indefinitely suspended distribution of ‘Tavis Smiley,’ produced by TS Media, an independent production company,” a PBS spokesperson told TheWrap. “PBS engaged an outside law firm to conduct an investigation immediately after learning of troubling allegations regarding Mr. Smiley…

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Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning.

Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Bob Goodlatte called for the hearing after recent media reports revealed the political motives of Special Counsel Mueller’s staff.

Trey Gowdy (SC) went off on Rosenstein in an epic 6 minute tirade about the conflicts of interest and corruption in the DOJ and FBI.

Trey Gowdy pointed out the very reason for a Special Counsel is to avoid conflicts of interest then continues to outline all of the corruption and conflicts of interest with the associates in the Mueller investigation…

Fairfax County police have identified the man who they say stripped naked after he crashed his car and assaulted a driver on southbound Route 28 near Washington Dulles International Airport on Tuesday.

Police say Sterling resident Jose Gonzalez Flores, 32, remains in the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after the incident. There are multiple warrants that will be served for Gonzalez Flores once he gets out of the hospital, including for felony hit and run, possession of marijuana, assault and battery, and indecent exposure.

According to police, Gonzalez Flores was involved in a three-vehicle hit-and-run collision around Tuesday afternoon around 3:30 p.m. Following the crash, police say the man got out of his car and assaulted one of the other drivers involved in the accident. He then took off his clothes and jumped on a passing truck, causing damage, before fleeing from the scene.

Police say when he jumped onto the truck, Gonzalez Flores broke one of the windows…